Criminally Asymptomatic
by PeachDestroyer
Summary: Three years after Akane lost her memories during a mysterious incident and took on a new identity, she assigns to the MWPSB. And when the investigation leads to a certain Makishima, something rewakes inside of her and for the first time she gets the chance to bring light into the strange circumstances of her amnesia. But she isn't the only one with clouded memories... /AU/S1/HIATUS
1. Prologue: The Lost Girl

**I have no idea if you know me... but I'm already writing a story named "Next" here.**

**But because my brain is full of story ideas which want to be written down properly I started to write down this story one day.**

**I know it's silly writing two stories at once, but in fact I'm writing... *counting* 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7... around eight to nine at this time. I'm serious.**

**And there are so many which I have to start.**

**However, I don't want to bore anyone which such information and tell straightaway what you need to know about this story.**

**There will be a lot ****of twists and turns and everything but it DOES make sense. Really. I promise.**

**And now have a nice time reading it.**

* * *

**Prologue:**

**The Lost Girl**

* * *

_"The people connected by the blue thread are destined to spend a life crossing each other, regardless of time, place, or circumstances. This magical cord may stretch or tangle, but never break"_

* * *

_"When you're lost there's nowhere to go but forward. One step at a time – and the way will show itself"_

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October 2102

* * *

There she was. Sitting in the darkness, barely be seen from the position he stood.

The girl was merely ten years old and was already living all alone on the cold streets. He could see her shiver in the darkness, a simple and small movement in the dark. Almost every second a shiver ran through her body and he could hear her cry silently. He could see her, even if she couldn´t see him.

He had just been walking around. He loved walking around the glittering night. But usually he walked to a forest far way. Nowadays everything was paved and full of silly skyscrapers. There were only a few forests left. In a forest you could see the sky in his whole beauty if there weren´t that many trees in the way. In the city the sky was always illuminated by lights which made it hard to look over to the stars who shone like gigantic, but far, far away diamonds, in the dark blue sky. But today he hadn´t had enough time ‒ so little time, so much work to do ‒ to go there and so he had simply decided to just take a walk in the darker parts of the town.

Every time he went to the forest, to his very special walking-around forest, he never met another person on his way due to everyone just being in the city. And when the took walks in the city he tried to avoid as much people as he could. In his opinion taking walks should be quiet, personal things. Things you didn´t share with someone else. And still he had stopped walking when he saw this little girl.

The girl was sitting between two really ugly buildings ‒ probably the ugliest the boy had ever seen ‒ and a bunch of boxes full of paper and old furniture. The faint moonlight, who had succeeded not being catched by the bright lights of the city, illuminated her hair, giving the brown a silver glance. Her face was pale in the light and her tears glittered like crystals. He heard her sobbing and saw her shivering and for a moment his heart sunk.

Should he reveal himself?

She only wore a thin dress, a dirty light blue which had been probably not so dirty once. Her hair was messy and her dress showed marks of fire.

The boy didn´t like fire. He couldn´t remember why, but he had always hated fires. He didn´t fear them, he just hated them. And probably the girl would hate but also fear the fire from now on.

The fire-marks, the late time and the fact that she was alone in a part of the city which is not exactly the best place for such a little child, crying, shivering and looking just poor with her thin, unhealthy-looking face, he could only guess that she recently lost her family due to a fire. That was the only explanation why her parents hadn´t gone to search for her already. That she looked so thin and incredibly fragile. That her face was marked by poorly brushed smoke. That her hair was also shining dirty grey in the white light of the moon. And that she coughed during her cry.

The poor girl had lost her family to a fire and had ran in her panic to flee from the flames to this ugly and dirty place. The boy assumed that she even got lost here.

A few days before his fourteenth birthday he had lost his father to some ax-swinging maniac. He had been over it in seconds but his mother had been still sobbing herself into sleep sometimes, even years after the incident. His mother died just around half a year ago due to an illness, leaving her only son all alone on earth. All alone in this terrible country.

He hadn´t mind. But he had never been the understanding, sentimental one. He was the frowning one, every time someone said how bad they felt. He couldn´t understand why so many people cared about so trivial things like "I forgot to water my beloved, of-all-times favourite plant. I will miss you forever, Dahlia Number 314". Even as a child he didn´t cry for such things like the death of the class mascot. Also he couldn´t understand why the children of his age never questioned anything or thought before doing anything. They just ran around, screaming and nearly killing each other in their plays.

But this girl was probably being really desperate due to her current state. She had lost her family or just her parents. She had nowhere she could go to. She was alone in a terrifying place with a ghost boy watching her.

If he was be this little ten-year-old girl and not he or he being ten and a girl, but this girl herself, he would be quite terrified too.

He never felt pity and sentimentality to someone before, but now to this girl ridiculously much. It surprised him.

Also he had never stopped to watch some person on the edge of the street. Something had catched his attention, even if this had happened unconsciously.

The boy looked around, in hope to find out what exactly had caught his attention. He didn´t like what was happening to him in the slightest. Why this girl interested him or why he felt for the first time in his life pity for someone.

And then he saw it.

He frowned. No, this couldn´t be. This was simply... _impossible_.

On the other side of the two ugly buildings the girl sat in-between there was another one of these incredibly ugly houses. But this one had one of those street scanners attached on one of its walls. The boy didn´t like them because they measured hues and hues were important to determine psycho-passes. Also they were instruments of the Sibyl System which had swallowed down entire Japan years ago. Even if he thought in such a deprecative way of the System he was still walking around as freely as you could be in this rotten world.

When he was a child he had always wondered why he could detest the System and could still have a ridiculously pure hue and low psycho-pass. Later, right after his mother´s death, he found out that he had the ability to control this two things. If he wanted his hue to cloud, it immediately clouded. If he wanted to rise his psycho-pass, it immediately rose.

The boy had never heard of something like that or that someone had the same ability as he. But he knew that Sibyl would send people to catch him if he shared his ability with the world so he remained quiet.

However, this girl had probably lost her family days ago and sat wobbling right in front of one of those street scanners. It was known that not even children were safe from Sibyl, the checks and the scanners. Even children could be declared as latent criminals. And latent criminals were those who thought about the System as a bad thing or who could possibly be someday maniac who killed people or something like that. Psycho-passes, in fact, could rise every time. If you were stressed or desperate. Or... or you had already lost your entire family to some fire.

But this little girl was crying for her loss, mourning for her parents and possible siblings. She felt desperate because she didn´t know where to go. She was cold because she sat between some old boxes full of rubbish while a cold wind rushed through the dark night. She was afraid and shivering. If she was sitting here for days, she was probably even incredibly hungry and thirsty.

There could be no way that her hue still wasn´t clouded a bit.

And there was no way that the scanner still didn´t catch her.

Unless...

For a moment the boy´s eyes widened and his belly turned flips. He had never thought that there could be someone like him in this world. But this was the only explanation why this little girl could sit here in the dark and be all desperate and sad without alarming this stupid street scanner. And suddenly he felt something warm in his stomach.

He stepped forward and the girl stopped crying and flinched when she noticed that someone was walking to her direction. She tried to stand up, but she was too weak and fell back to the ground.

He stepped before her and for the first time he could see her face as clearly as you could see a dirty face. He frowned. Something of this little girl´s face was strangely familiar...

In the white, ghostly moonlight her face was somewhat frightening.

"I´m not here to hurt you", he told her, as softly as he could, showing her his bare hands. He had never talked to little girls before and didn´t have an idea how he could speak to her without scaring her.

_And_, he thought, _why I am doing this anyway?_

Wasn´t it easier to let her go? But wouldn´t she die then? He had never mind if someone had died. He shouldn´t yet.

And then something on this little girl was familiar.

And then she was like him: Lost and special.

The boy kneed so that he was on the same eye level as the girl.

"You can trust me. I won´t do anything to you. I´m here to help"

Still she just stared at him.

He held out a hand to her. "Really. You can take it. I won´t do anything. Promise. You know? I also lost my parents"

Suddenly her eyes widened. So he had been right all the time.

"Orphans know each other, right?"

The boy tried a simple smile and he hoped that it wasn´t terrifying. For a long time she looked at him and then slowly took his hand. Her hand was so incredibly small and fragile in his. And her eyes were so wide and beautiful in the white moonlight when she looked at him and said through them: _"Really?"_

He nodded and his smile grew a bit bigger.

"I´m Makishima Shogo and you can trust me. I promise"

* * *

**The quote is by "Journey of Shadows" by ****Sam J. Charlton, which I didn't read but the quote fit.**

**The second quote I mean. The first one is just a general saying for the red threat which I... edited. And this will be kind of the lead quote of the whole story, don't ask.**

**And why again quotes? I had so much fun searching for quotes for "Next" (I already have them all) that I thought... "Why not again?". And also... it's a story with Shogo. I think quotes fit here even more than in "Next."**

**Also the time will skip between the present and the past. This chapter is a piece of the past, by the way.**

**After a long thought I decided to not beta this story. Because I don't want to find myself another beta-reader (this whole system is SO strange) or overwork the nice Aruu who agreed to beta "Next." (Thank you so much.)**

**However, this means that this story would more likely be TERRIBLE, HORRIBLE, DREADFUL (sorry). And if you want to correct me, do it in the reviews of mail me. I will correct it and will try not do the same mistake again. Deal? Deal. (Yes, I can hear you scream "Deal.")**

**Fine.**

**Seeing you next time!**

**Momo**

_**\- currently working on chapter eight ("CA") and twelve ("Next") and patentietly hoping that someone actually likes this story and everything**_

(Updated on October 25, 2014 and October 27, 2014)


	2. A Familiar Face

**Even if nobody seemed to care to leave me a review I just couldn't stop myself to post the next chapter because I think that the prologue and chapter one should always be posted either on the same day or only with a little gap. Because prologues tend to tell other parts or the story, important ones of course, but not the actual one. And actual ones are in the end the one which matter. Or did I just get something wrong?**

**However, another chapter, another chance for new readers and reviews, I say. Or lose readers, but that's another story.**

**And now: Enjoy reading!**

* * *

**Chapter One:**

**A Familiar Face**

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_"You're like a song that I heard when I was a little kid but forgot I knew until I heard it again."_

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November 2112

* * *

It was like the rain tried to wash everything away the humans had build in the last thousand years. It rained and rained and just wouldn´t stop. On her way to work she almost literally drowned in the streets.

It had surprised her when she got a call no more than one hour and a half ago that she should meet the head of the Ministry of Welfare´s Public Safety Bureau. Kasei Joshu hadn´t wasted any time with big speeches and just congratulated her that she was now a member of her Bureau. She had even thought for a moment that a smile had lost himself in the cold face of the Chief´s. But it was more possible that this had been just her imagination. And right after her assignment she got her very first mission.

In fact, she should have started working by next week but due to the circumstance that her Division had a new mission and needed everyone they could get and everyone else was out too, she had to start working today.

Her new colleagues were waiting for her at some meeting point. Because every other Division was out too, there hadn´t been any cars left and she had to walk all the way to the point. She really hoped that her fellow Inspector wasn´t about to explode right now because his new partner was late on her very first day. But like she knew him... he would probably explode which meant she really had to hurry up.

She ran through the streets which had turned into rivers and did her best to stay dry and fresh and not to be late. This was her first day, she wasn´t even assigned two hours ago and she felt cold and tired. She couldn´t be late too.

She ran further and further, the rain falling upon her and water splashing behind her, while her belly got filled with heat and excitement.

* * *

The walls were cold.

They were cold and grey but then, of course, they were the walls of some paddy wagon.

He leaned back and closed his eyes for a moment while he felt the movement of the wagon through his body. They were on the way to a new crime scene. He and the other three.

If he listened carefully he could even hear the drops falling onto the roof of the wagon. Inside of the wagon it was dark and no one said a word. This was a routine for them. They had to enter this wagon and then were driven to some crime scene to investigate, chase after criminals and catch or kill them. It was always the same. What a disturbing life.

But the miracle, the Sibyl System, the miraculous System which could read the mentality of people, had nothing better to offer to people like him. Or like the other three persons inside of this wagon. Because in its opinion there were dangerous for the society and had to be locked up. He should be lucky that he had got this job. This job was the only way to be kind of free after the System labeled someone as a "latent criminal". But that didn´t mean that this job was a good one. It was just the best for a latent criminal.

In this country where Sibyl ruled over everyone and everything there were not only Inspectors who solved crimes and hunted criminals but also Enforcers ‒ the society´s very own "hunting dogs". Enforcers caught the criminals or killed them so the Inspectors hadn´t to. And so their psycho-passes ‒ Sibyl´s mentality measure ‒ didn´t rise. In fact, the Enforcers did all the dirty work while the Inspectors got the respect and the approval of everyone. With the time they had learned to accept this fact. Because no one would approve that some latent criminal saved everyone. Because they didn´t accept people like them.

_"Today´s world is solely based on acceptance."_

"What do you think who this new Inspector is like?" Kagari Shusei suddenly asked.

He opened his eyes and looked like the other two to Kagari. He was the youngest of them and sometimes quite annoying. But he was okay.

"I mean... didn´t you see Gino´s face when he read about this new Inspector? He knows him or her! But he wouldn´t tell!" Kagari turned to him.

"What do you say, Ko? You know of all of us Gino the best. You should know, shouldn´t you?"

_"Ko"_‒ his nickname. Short for "Kogami". "Kogami Shinya".

He shrugged. "I have no idea"

Kagari made a long face. "Heh? None? Are you lying, Ko?"

"I´m not"

He sighed. "I can´t believe it. Probably Gino had some friend in primary school who´s going to be our new Sheperd. And this friend is exactly like Gino. Oh... hell... what do we do if it´s another Gino?"

Kunizuka Yayoi, the only female Enforcer of Division One, clicked her fingers against Kagari´s head.

"Heh!" he cried out. "What´s so wrong about asking who and how this new Inspector could be? I mean... Gino knows him or her!"

She didn´t say anything and just leaned back again.

"We also know her", Masaoka Tomomi, the eldest of them said. "He told me that not only he knows him or her but we too"

"Heh? Why are you telling us that just now?"

"I´m sorry, I forgot"

"I can´t believe it... don´t you also look forward to meet this new Inspector? I mean... we know this person... probably"

"Not _'probably'_", Masaoka said.

"Okay. Not _'probably'_. We all know this person and Gino too. And this person is nobody we investigated after. So... there would be... " Kagari thought a while. Then his shoulders sacked. "... no one" He turned to Masaoka. "Do you really think that you didn´t get something wrong?"

He shook his head.

"But nobody of us has an idea who this person could be! There´s no way that we know him or her!"

This was the last sentence anybody in this wagon spoke before silence fell over them again. But Kogami knew that everyone tried to think of someone they all knew. And who wasn´t some criminal. He also tried to think of such a person but couldn´t find anyone. Probably Masaoka or Ginoza Nobuchika, the Inspector, got something wrong?

However, they would soon know. At the latest they would know when they stood before him or her. But know they sat in the darkness of the paddy wagon, the rain falling onto the roof and the engine silently purring.

* * *

The light hurt for a moment in his eyes when the paddy wagon stopped and they got out. It was still raining and Ginoza stood under some large tent with a desk and bright lights. The air smelled of rain and dirt and the noise of the police robots with the silly hologram faces ringed in his ears.

His eyes scanned the new setting and memorised everything new. Then his eyes went to the little girl a few meters away from Ginoza. Wait... _a little girl?_

The others were quite as surprised as he was when they glimpsed at this girl clutching her police jacket and looking at them with wide eyes. She scanned everyone of them and when her gaze fell onto Kogami her eyes grew as big as they could and she looked kind of... _shocked_.

He frowned. Yeah, this was kind of strange. Why should this girl ‒ this new Inspector, of all people ‒ be shocked at seeing him? His frown deepened. And then there was something strangely familiar with this girl...

She didn´t look like someone suited for such a violent and disturbing job with her slightly round pale face, her immense brown eyes which illuminated the light beautifully and the short brown hair. She barely looked like someone which had finished everything already and was now part of the big business world.

Kogami couldn´t believe that a child like her got assigned. Even if she looked kind of familiar to him... and... _Wait._

Now he remembered. He remembered a old, burned-down building, flames, ashes, the robots with their annoying holograms, the destruction. And in the middle of everything: This girl. Back then her hair had been longer, her face and charisma even more insecure than today. Uh... how many years ago had that been? Three? If it had been three he would exactly know why she had looked so shocked when she saw him going out of the paddy wagon. Still he couldn´t remember her name... Was it something with "M"? or with "C"? He couldn´t remember, no matter how much he tried.

_"People keep forgetting things. Probably they were never that important to them, then."_

Before anyone could rise his voice Kagari cried out in joy.

"Natsumi-chan!" he cried and ran towards the girl, hugging her cheerfully. She nearly dropped her jacket due to his sudden outbreak, but then smiled a very shy smile.

Oh, yes. Now he remembered. The memories came back in a rush and hit him hard. Kogami had no clue why Kagari knew her. Three years ago he hadn´t been an Enforcer. However, now he could remember the name of this little girl.

The little girl of the strange case PF-0945.

Sekimoto Natsumi.

* * *

**The quote is from Maggie Stiefvater's "****Lament: The Faerie Queen's Deception" and it fits so perfectly... it's wonderful.**

**We met a bit Natsumi who is a bit different from the normal Akane we know because she... she has lost her memories and this is a aspect which changes things. Also she had a different past due to some circumstances and all.**

**The story will be split into the time where she already is Natsumi and the time she was still Akane. And the "Akane"-part is also split in two.**

**(I hope you don't misunderstand this with possible schizophrenia...)**

**However, in the main story she's Natsumi.**

**Okay, enough with that.**

**Shogo won't appear in the next chapters. He will in seven and then more regularly.**

**Speaking of Shogo... ****his seventeen-year-old self from the epilogue is _quite_ different from the canon twenty-seven-year-old Shogo. Also the present Shogo is also quite different from the canon one, for example due to the fact that he had found little ten-year-old Akane in this street. And so on.**

**Okay... what else did I want to say? Oh, I remember.**

**In Shinya's narration there will always be some italic words in quotation marks. And they aren't his thoughts, I wanted to clarify.**

**Okay. I talked enough for today.**

**I hope you liked the chapter and will keep on reading!**

**Momo**

_**\- currently working on chapter nine and hoping that everything isn't confusing at all**_

(Updated on October 27, 2014)


	3. Recalling Memories

**Wow. 6 Follower, 2 Favos, 3 Reviews. Seems like someone reads this after all.**

**I'm happy.**

**Even if this story is confusing for some people. And even if someone uses review to scold me that I'm too slow with uploading "Next."**

**It isn't slow. I have a beta reader, the nice AruuYuda-ShoriKyuyu. And beta readers need time to finish a chapter. Especially good ones who are really careful and want to their job as good as any job. And sorry, little guesty, but I won't push anyone only because you think the uploads aren't so regular like you want them to be. Beta readers are also human, you know?**

**However, I'm really happy that this story is being read. And I hope it's not THAT confusing at all.**

**It's a story about amnesia and identity and memories and forgotten things. Things like friendship. How to deal with forgotten memories. Not only about amnesiac people but also about "normal" ones because everyone forgets things and all. And about the past, the present and the future and how these times interact with each other and everything. About changes, for example. About separation and everything time does. Such stories are always a bit confusing, but if you're careful and everything you will still have fun reading it and everything.**

**Okay, enough talking.**

**And now: Enjoy reading.**

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**Chapter Two:**

**Recalling Memories**

* * *

_"People have an annoying habit of remembering things they shouldn't"_

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November 2112

* * *

She still couldn´t believe that she failed on her very first day. First of all she had been late as hell and then... then she shot Kogami Shinya.

Kogami Shinya.

She had sat by the sea for a long time after the incident, thinking about everything. She had shot an Enforcer on her first day of work. And then this Enforcer was even Kogami Shinya. The Kogami Shinya who used to be an Inspector. The Kogami Shinya who had saved her life three years ago.

When she had seen him going out of the paddy wagon along with all the other Enforcers she had been more than just shocked. He had told her everything about being a detective back then. He had helped through the emptiness after the incident. He had been so friendly to her. Okay, in the very special way of his. But he had been friendly and his eyes had glowed while he had worked. Back then she had been sure that he had loved his job more than everything. That he loved being a detective, protecting and saving people. But now he was an Enforcer. And he had wanted to shoot this woman... The Kogami Shinya she saw today had not been the one she used to know. The Kogami from three years ago, the proud Inspector, would have never thought to shoot an innocent woman.

What could have happened to him in the last three years? For some point he had been demoted to an Enforcer and then he had turned into some carnivore.

It was terrifying how much he had changed over the years.

She twisted her hair around one of her fingers. Back then it had been much longer, now it was quite short and ‒ and to use her best friend´s words ‒ "mushroom-like". But this was, in fact, the only difference from the person she had been back then. Or she thought this at least. She freed her finger from her hair and put her hands onto her lap.

She hadn´t wanted to go home after she had shot Enforcer Kogami. Instead she had returned to the Tower of the Public Safety Bureau and now sat in the cafeteria. She felt terribly guilty for what happened. Ginoza Nobuchika, her fellow Inspector, hadn´t been that happy when she had disobeyed Sibyl´s orders, talked to the woman and then shot Kogami. Kogami himself couldn´t be happy either. She bit her lips.

"Why so sad?"

She looked up and gazed into the smiling face of Kagari Shusei, another Enforcer of Division One. His orange hair was a bit spiky and was held by three blue hair-clips. He wore a nice suit with a red tie and his smile seemed genuine. He pulled the chair opposite from her back and then sat down.

"Do you still think that you was wrong shooting Kogami and disobeying the System?"

He shook his head.

"You don´t have to. I think it was quite cool what you did, but of course Gino´s upset... just don´t mind his outbreaks. Or that he always looks pissed as hell"

She couldn´t fight herself and smiled.

"Yeah. And your smile´s back" Kagari leaned back and crossed his arms behind his head, grinning. "It´s good to see you, Natsumi-chan, by the way"

"_Sekimoto Natsumi"_‒ her name. Even after all those years it sounded strange in her ears.

"I mean... we didn´t expect you to be the new Inspector. Congratulations"

"Thank you, Kagari-kun", Natsumi said and twisted her finger in her hair again.

"I did not know that you wanted to be a detective"

She took a deep breath. "When... when I got my result and found out that Sibyl thought that I could fit into the MWPSB, I thought... I thought I could try. I mean... I know you all. You, Masaoka-san, Ginoza-san, Kunizuka-san, Kogami-san... And the thought that I could work with you sounded great"

Kagari smiled. "It does. And what you did today... Probably Sibyl was right and you do fit in all this chaos. Even if I wanted you to have a fine and relaxing job. Being an Inspector is everything but relaxing, at least"

"I know"

"However, it´s still good to see you. I mean... we saw each other the last time... one year ago? One whole year, Natsumi-chan! I´m glad that we are now going to see us nearly every day"

"I´m glad too", Natsumi replied and smiled. Most people thought that Enforcers were terrifying people but Kagari was always so cheerful and nice. Still she still couldn´t believe that they were really friends. Before they could continue their chat they heard heavy steps in the silent cafeteria. Natsumi turned and saw Masaoka Tomomi in his nice black suit going towards them.

"I still can´t believe that I see you again, Ojou-san", he said when he arrived by their table. "Of all people we know... it was in the end you who became our new Inspector"

He patted her shoulder.

"But that doesn´t mean that were not happy to see you, Ojou-san. We´re all happy. We really are. Even Nobuchika. We just can´t quite believe it. Ko saved you from the burning house three years ago and you was all the scared little girl. That you´re an Inspector know just surprises us"

She looked to her hands in her lap. They were shacking.

"I know", she said quietly, ordering her hands to stop shacking in her mind. Masaoka and Kagari shouldn´t see them shacking.

"However, this is not the only thing we wonder about... " Masaoka turned to Kagari. "Three years ago he wasn´t part of Division One or even the MWPSB. So... how can you know each other?"

Natsumi looked up and her smile returned.

"One and a half year ago... I met Ginoza-san in the park when he took Kagari-kun to some shop so he could buy the things he wanted. I walked to them and we talked a bit. I explained Kagari-kun why I know Ginoza-san and Ginoza-san explained me why he was with some Enforcer while not on duty: Kagari-kun apparently asked him over and over again if he could take him out so he could buy some cooking utensils and mangas and stuff and then Ginoza-san said 'yes', because he couldn´t stand it anymore. So they were together in the park back then.

"Kagari-kun then began to ask me about everything about the incident of three years ago. He even convinced Ginoza-san to go to some restaurant so we could chat. Sometime later we trailed off and began to talk about everything we could think about. He even wanted me to drink something with him but Ginoza-san didn´t allow him this. Half a year later we met again after they had just caught a criminal. But until now we didn´t see each other again"

"Gino´s a party-killer. Natsumi-chan´s just turned eighteen and I wanted to celebrate this with some alcohol. Was this too much?"

"You shouldn´t forget that alcohol can rise the psycho-pass", Masaoka said. "He probably just wanted to avoid this girl´s crime coefficient to worsen"

"It´s still a pity. I would love to know if she´s able to hold her liquid" Kagari made a face, but then his face lightened up again.

"But now I can see Natsumi-chan every day... Natsumi-chan, we _need_ to find time to drink something some day, okay?"

"She´s just nineteen years old, Kagari. Leave her alone"

"I did not know that you could sometimes be just like your son"

Oh, right. Masaoka was Ginoza´s father. Natsumi nearly forgot. Three years ago she had, to everyone´s surprise, found out all on her own that they were father and son. Still she couldn´t explain how she could have known. Only that she just watched them all the time arguing and everything. And then suddenly she had put one and one together and it had been right. Not only Kogami, Kunizuka, Ginoza and so on were surprised that she found out but also herself. She hadn´t known that she could do something like this back then. Still she hadn´t a clue why she could.

But then, she didn´t have a clue about many things.

* * *

For a long time Natsumi just stood before analyst Karanomori Shion´s door, stared at the metallic grey of the door. She wasn´t ready to face Kogami now, she knew. But on the other hand she wanted so badly to see him and apologise to him for paralysing him. Also...

_Also I want to know what happened in these three years_, Natsumi thought, continuing to stare at the door. After a few minutes she took a very deep breath and then entered Karanomori´s room. It was as dark as she remembered. Only the light of the many desktops illuminated the room. The analyst was sitting before them and when she heard Natsumi enter she turned around. Her lips formed a smile when she saw her.

"Natsumi-chan!" she shouted. "Yayoi told me that you were the new Inspector. Of course, I could have just looked it up by myself but Inspector Ginoza told me not to ruin the surprise. And it was indeed a nice surprise, don´t you think?"

Then she stood up, briefly brushing her dress down, and went to hug Natsumi.

"It´s nice to see you again _and_ have you on board"

Karanomori hugged her again and then released her, before she sat onto a large dark grey sofa.

"Come and tell me about everything what happened to you in the last three years"

Natsumi would have loved to talk to her but...

"Oh, I understand", Karanomori suddenly said, her face sad. She probably saw the look on Natsumi´s face. "You´re not here to chat, are you? You´re here to see Shinya"

"Maybe... Maybe we can chat sometime later", Natsumi said and tried to smile. "Then I will tell you everything you want"

Karanomori clapped her hands together.

"Deal" She stood up and sat back onto her chair.

"Shinya´s fine. But he still has to rest. But... " She looked back to Natsumi. "But it´s okay if you just want to see him. He should be awake now"

Suddenly her belly began to hurt. _Meeting Kogami-san?_

Natsumi swallowed and then nodded, before Karanomori showed her the way to the room Kogami laid.

He opened and closed his hand over and over again. And with every opening and closing he could do it better and better.

Kogami Shinya still couldn´t believe that she had really shot him. But then she had always surprised him.

Three years ago she had found out all on her own that Ginoza and Masaoka were father and son. Also she had helped a lot to find the arsonist back then. She hadn´t known who she was ‒ and even now she didn´t have a clue ‒, but she knew a lot of things, could quote tons of books, noticed everything in her immediate vicinity and was surprisingly skilled at putting things together.

She had surprised everyone back then, but still nobody of them would have guessed that this little girl would be an Inspector of their Division someday. No matter how intelligent and skilled she was.

Still she decided to become an Inspector. And no one knew why.

"_I have no idea. This girl will either be one of our greatest companions or our deadliest enemy"_

Suddenly the door of his room opened and Sekimoto Natsumi entered the room. She looked pale and miserable. Their gazes met for a moment before she looked down.

"I´m so sorry that I shot you, Kogami-san", she said in a genuine tone. Of course. She had always been genuine.

He had never thought about meeting this girl again, still it amused Kogami that their first conversation after all those years would start like this.

"You don´t have to", he insured. "In fact... I think you did the right choice"

Suddenly Natsumi looked at him again, her eyes wide.

"Do you?"

Kogami nodded. "I do"

"But why? I disobeyed the System, the Dominator. I didn´t do what I should have done. I shot you. I didn´t do _anything_ right"

He shook his head. "You did everything right, Inspector. Like you can see, things have changed in the course of the last years. I lost myself in the abyss and forgot why I became a detective in the first place: To protect people. For so many years I just followed Sibyl´s orders and someday I forgot to handle on my own. I forgot that being a detective wasn´t to bring someone down, but to protect someone. When I saw you under this tent I remembered the days I was an Inspector and when you stopped us from immediately killing this woman and then paralysing me I remembered the things I once believed in. I forgot them, but you helped me to remember. And I think that it´s possible for me to return to them a bit under such an Inspector as you. It´s a pleasure to have to work alongside you, Inspector Sekimoto"

Natsumi´s eyes were a bit wet and she dried them with the back of her hand. Did he just really reduce her to tears?

"I thank you so much, Kogami-san", she said and then she smiled her bright smile.

* * *

August 2109

* * *

"There´s someone inside!"

_He could hear Ginoza´s voice in his head when Kogami walked through the burning corridors of the house. The scanners had found out that somewhere in this building a person was trapped or unconscious. Ginoza wanted him to wait until the fire was extinguished. But he had know that this would take to long. Whoever this person was, he or she would die in these flames if he had just waited for the robots´s finishing their job. He just hoped that this person was still alive in this moment._

_The heat let Kogami sweat and the flames had already attacked his jacket and he had to take it off and throw it away. The flames burned in his eyes and the sweat let his hair stick on his head. The smoke was burning his very own fire in his lungs._

_But he didn´t thought about going back. He had to save this person._

_And then, in a room in the highest level he found someone lying on the ground. Kogami rushed forward and found a little girl, a young woman, unconscious on the floor. He picked her up. Her brown her was long and grey because of the ashes. Her face was pale and she was so incredibly light in his arms like a child, although she looked like around sixteen or seventeen._

_The fire crackled around him when Kogami hurried down and out of this house. He found her. Now he had to bring her someone save. He coughed due to the ashes and his eyes teared. Still he looked onto the face of the girl._

_And frowned when he felt something familiar about her._

* * *

**The quote is from Christopher Paolini's "Eragon."**

**Tomorrow is Halloween. ****And in celebration's sake I won't talk too much here!**

**I hope you all will have a nice All Hallows' Eve!**

**Momo**

_**\- currently being incredibly busy with chapters and Halloween and stuff**_


	4. Walking the Path Back

**I wanted to upload it yesterday but then I changed my mind... because I wanted to complete (chapter name spoiler) "Chapter 9 - Reaching Out" first. I did it yesterday and I'm so happy. It's a LONG chapter. And a lovely one. Only past events. And soooo nice ones. (Or better, _I_ think they're nice... I mean you could think that they're HORRIBLE.)**

**Okay. Today: Present, past, past, present. Akane/Natsumi here, Kogami there. Oh, and yes. You will get to know how Akane got her new name.**

**Have fun and enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Three:**

**Walking the Path Back**

* * *

_"More we remember more is chance to know who we are... "_

* * *

November 2112

* * *

"_You did everything right, Inspector. Like you can see, things have changed in the course of the last years. I lost myself in the abyss and forgot why I became a detective in the first place: To protect people. For so many years I just followed Sibyl´s orders and someday I forgot to handle on my own. I forgot that being a detective wasn´t to bring someone down, but to protect someone. When I saw you under this tent I remembered the days I was an Inspector and when you stopped us from immediately killing this woman and then paralysing me I remembered the things I once believed in. I forgot them, but you helped me to remember. And I think that it´s possible for me to return to them a bit under such an Inspector as you. It´s a pleasure to have to work alongside you, Inspector Sekimoto"_

As she laid in her bed and stared to the ceiling, she couldn´t help but think about Kogami´s words. Natsumi had thought about quitting after she had shot Kogami, because she had thought that she had messed everything up. That in the end, she wasn´t suited to be a detective at all. But his words gave her hope. Not only that she had done well on her first day, but also that somewhere under his new carnivorous shell the old Kogami Shinya she used to know still lived and waited to come out again some day.

Three years ago he had saved her from the flames. With his own hands he had carried her to safety and then had been always by her side after she had woken up in the sickroom.

Natsumi closed her eyes. They had caught the culprit who had tried to burn down this building, but they had never found out why she had been there on this day. Why she had laid on ground, unconscious. The arsonist had assured them over and over again that he hadn´t intended to kill people. He had just wanted to burn down this house. That he hadn´t known that she had been there when he did.

And to her misfortune she didn´t know why she had been there either. Everytime she tried remembering the time before Kogami saved her from being swallowed by those flames, her mind was blurred. She had no idea who her parents were, if they were still alive and worried or already dead. If she had friends or even a boyfriend. Who had taught her table manners or how to ride a bicycle. She didn´t know where she was born, where she went to school, if she had siblings or if she was an only child.

She didn´t even know her own name.

* * *

August 2109

* * *

_The girl looked down on her hands. Even those seemed unfamiliar. She looked up and into the mirror opposite from her. They seemed as unfamiliar like this face which looked back to her. This face with the large brown eyes, the long brown hair and the sickly pale skin._

_She stood up and looked down onto her. She was so skinny and small. Then she picked up some of the clothes the blonde woman had given to her. Some underwear. A dark red shirt which was too big for her and black trousers which kept slipping over her waist. Good for her, the woman had also given her a belt._

_The girl put on some socks and then slit into a pair of shoes. With a brush she straightened her hair. Even if she was now fully clothed she still felt unfinished, empty, incomplete._

_They had told her to come out when she was done dressing. One last time she looked into the face of the stranger before she left the room and walked down the corridor to the dark room full of monitors of the blonde woman. As she entered the woman turned around, her lips as red as her lovely dress under her white coat. Karanomori, she remembered. Analyst Karanomori Shion._

"_You´re awake", she said happily, standing up. She was so much taller than herself._

"_The Inspectors want to talk to you. I hope you´re ready"_

How can I be ready if I don´t even know my own face?_, the girl wanted to say but kept quiet. Then the door opened, she turned and saw four men and a woman coming in._

_The woman was as tall as the analyst. Probably a bit taller. With long black hair in a ponytail and blue eyes. She was dressed all in black and wore a serious look on her face. On the contrary the man who stood next to her, a bit spiky, brown hair and brown eyes, seemed more nice. A smile was painted over his face and his hands were in the pockets of his dark blue trousers. Next to him was a older man. He also looked friendly in his dark suit and the girl thought she had glimpsed something metallic on his left hand..._

_While those three stood in the background two other men stood before them. Both had black hair but one of them had green eyes, glasses and a sharp face while the other had calm grey ones and a more relaxed expression. The girl stared at the man with the grey eyes. Suddenly she remembered the bright flames in this house, the ashes, the smoke. Being carried and glimpsing into a face full of ashes and calm grey eyes. The memory let her head spin and she had the feeling as she had to vomit. Pain filled her temples._

"_Aren´t you okay?", said the blonde analyst and then rolled her chair towards her and the girl sat down. She wanted to say "thank you", but the words died in her throat. Still Karanomori nodded when she saw the girl´s expression and she was glad that the blonde woman had understood._

"_I´m Inspector Ginoza Nobuchika", the man with the green eyes and the sharp eyes said._

"_We want to ask you a few questions. Do you understand?"_

_The girl nodded and the pain kept flowing._

"_If you feel pain, you don´t have to answer our questions. We can ask them later", the grey-eyed man said. _My saviour_, she thought._

_She shook her head, the pain aching through her skull, before she cleared her throat._

"_It´s okay", she said. Her voice nothing more than a whisper._

_The man nodded. His grey eyes glowing in the light of the monitors._

"_As I can tell from your staring you´re knowing that I was the one saving you"_

_The girl nodded._

"_I´m Inspector Kogami Shinya. Gino´s my partner. And those people... " Inspector Kogami Shinya pointed at the men and the woman behind him and the green-eyes Ginoza Nobuchika._

"_... are the Enforcers. They help investigating. This is Masaoka Tomomi" He pointed at the friendly, older man. "This is Sasayama Mitsuru" Now the double brown, dark blue trousers wearing man. "And lastly Kunizuka Yayoi" The woman with the serious look._

"_No one of us wants to do anything to you, Miss", Kogami Shinya continued, keeping his gaze onto her. "So you don´t need to be afraid. We just want to ask some questions, okay?"_

_The girl nodded slowly._

_He nodded back. "Fine. So... what´s your name? Your age?"_

_She suddenly felt numb. A name? She couldn´t remember a name. Or more accurate: Her own name. She could remember the name of those people who were also in this dark room. Green Ginoza, Red and Blonde Karanomori, Serious Kunizuka, Double Brown Sasayama, Friendly Masaoka, Calm Kogami. But her own name?_

_The girl felt her blood floating up her head and slowly shook her head and Kogami frowned._

"_Do you want to say that you don´t know your name?"_

_Again the girl nodded but this time tears were glittering in her eyes._

* * *

_They had left her alone after they had found out that she wasn´t able to remember anything. With her amnesia she was useless for them. All she could do now was to try and try to remember._

_She tried for the last three hours and still she had no clue what her name could be. Suddenly the door of her sickroom opened and Karanomori, Sasayama and Kogami entered as pretty, nice and calm as always._

"_They wanted to see you", the blonde woman said, smiling. "I think someone´s quite interested in you"_

_Sasayama chuckled, but Kogami didn´t even blink._

"_It´s a shame that we have no idea how we should call you", Karanomori said, her voice and face sad. She had found out with the help of tests that the girl was seventeen years old. And for some reason they couldn´t find a name to her hue and psycho-pass. Powder blue, 21. Such an incredibly healthy crime coefficient. And still they couldn´t find her name with this information. It was like she wasn´t existing after all._

"_I have an idea", Sasayama Mitsuru exclaimed._

"_Until we know her name, _we_ could name her"_

_Karanomori clapped her hands together. "Nice idea. How about... 'Aoko'?"_

"'_Aoko'? 'Blue child'? She doesn´t look like some blue girl. I think something like 'Mikoto' fits her better"_

"'_Mikoto'? Do you keep forgetting that she´s the victim in some case?"_

"_Of course, I know that. But that isn´t a reason why she shouldn´t be called 'Mikoto'"_

"_We all know why you want to give her this name. Also, _she_ should like the name we give her too"_

_Karanomori turned to the girl._

"_What do you like better? 'Aoko' or 'Mikoto'?"_

"_I... ", she started, but her mouth was so dry, she needed to swallow first._

"_See? She doesn´t like it"_

"_She didn´t even have time to answer!", Sasayama replied angrily._

"_Of course she had. Don´t you see her expression? She doesn´t like the choice of name of yours"_

"_And why are you so sure that she doesn´t like she´s about to vomit on your shoes because of _your_ choice of name?"_

"'_Natsumi'", Kogami suddenly said and the girl flinched to the suddenness. Karanomori and Sasayama turned to the Inspector._

"_What did you say, Shinya?" the blonde woman asked._

"_I said 'Natsumi'. How about this name? It´s summer after all"_

"'_Natsumi'? And then 'Mikoto'´s a bad choice?" Sasayama snorted._

_The girl blinked and then blushed, keeping her face down, as she clutched the material of her shirt. "'N... Natsumi'? I... I... I think this is okay"_

_Sasayama and Karanomori turned to the girl at exact the same time._

"What?!_" they shouted also synchronously._

_After a while they calmed down and Karanomori left the room because she had work to do._

"_Well... ", Sasayama began. "Then it´s up to me then to pick up a surname for... for... " He swallowed and then scowled at Kogami._

"_I can´t believe that she liked your choice the most. Probably because you saved her. If I had saved her back then... "_

"_Please just pick a surname"_

_Sasayama snorted. "Fine, Inspector"_

_He thought a while and the girl was seriously worried that he would pick up the strangest name he was able to recall._

"'_Sekimoto'", he shouted out after a while. "Yeah! It´s 'Sekimoto'!"_

_Kogami frowned and the girl stared at the Enforcer, completely confused._

"_What the hell is 'Sekimoto' for a name?" the Inspector wanted to know._

_Sasayama grinned. "You´re not so clever as you thought after all, ya? However, it´s because of 'Sekimen suru ni'"_

_His frown deepened. "'To blush'?"_

_He nodded. "Exactly, Ko. Because this lady here blushed all the time" He looked at her and grinned. And she... she blushed. His grin grew and when she realised what she did she looked down at her lap._

"_You see? The name fits her perfectly. I´m a genius" Then he took a deep breath. "From now on, little girl, you will be known by the immensely brilliant name of 'Sekimoto Mikoto' until you get your memory back or we found out your real name"_

_Kogami scowled at him and Sasayama caught it. He sighed._

"_Okay, okay. Ko. Little girl, from now on you will be known by the more boring but probably acceptable name of 'Sekimoto Natsumi', even if it will never be as awesome as 'Sekimoto Mikoto'"_

_Kogami kept scowling and the girl kept blushing. But now she was also smiling._

"Sekimoto Natsumi"_, she thought._ Now I have a name. _And by this thought her smile grew._

_Sasayama and Kogami turned to her and both of them rose a eyebrow when they saw her smiling._

"_Well... Natsu-chan, you should smile more often. It really suits you", Sasayama said. "And I mean it. It´s beautiful"_

_Kogami elbowed him._

* * *

November 2112

* * *

After solving the case, they still had no clue who she was. So she had no choice than to keep using the name "Sekimoto Natsumi". And as Sekimoto Natsumi the Public Safety Bureau had helped her purchasing a flat. It had been a reward for helping to solve the case. They also gave her some money. After this case she hadn´t seen the guys of Division One anymore, except Ginoza and Kagari.

In the last years she had finished the school and made the test of the System. Her results had been fantastic and she had been able to assign into the MWPSB. Natsumi had been more than just happy after she had found out. In all these years she had made friends, but still she had missed Division One so badly. And now she was part of it. It was like a dream.

Natsumi rolled to her side and kept her eyes shut. Still she hadn´t managed to regain her memories. She was still a girl without past.

She laid there for minutes, completely still, before she fell asleep, dreaming of a wide meadow, a sky full of brilliant stars and an angel boy of whom she dreamed of since the day she had said goodbye to Kogami and the others three years ago.

She had really grown.

Of course, she still looked like a little girl, but in comparison to then she was more mature and not so incredibly insecure anymore. Not like she had been at seventeen years.

Kogami tried to remember the little girl with the long brown hair who was so desperate because she had no idea who she was. Natsumi´s eyes were still large, her face still round and pale and she even was still as clumsy as ever but she had changed, he knew.

"_I wonder how she looks like right now. I really miss this little girl"_

But while she had changed in a few aspects he was glad that the core of her was still like back then.

And that her smile was as beautiful, when not even more beautiful, than the one she gave him and Sasayama the day she got her name.

Kogami closed his eyes and made a fist.

Hopefully, she would never know what had happened to Sasayama. They had been close. And if she would find out, her smile would probably vanish forever.

This beautiful smile of hers.

* * *

**The quote is by Rati Tsiteladze.**

**Italic passages always signalise past events. For better understanding I still add the rough time (month - year). I hope this makes everything easier to follow.**

**I don't have much time, so I won't talk much.**

**(Now you're all happy, aren't you?)**

**So... Sasayama DOES live in August 2109, by the way. He died in January 2110. So Akane/Natsumi and he were able to meet.**

**(Also, Kogami is probably a BIT overprotective of Akane/Natsumi because of certain events in August 2109... and of late 2109 to 2110... )**

**Momo**

_**\- currently working on chapter ten**_


	5. The Faceless One

**Hey, it's me again.**

**Yeah, I know... those uploads...**

**However, I want to answer some questions! (I don't want to do it in private because it could be possible that someone else wants to know the same thing.)**

**FlawedPerception: First of all: Thank you for the three (!) reviews in a row. They surprised me./Kogami didn't forget about Akane/Natsumi. He only had troubles to recognise her properly. I mean... they met years ago. Both of them changed. Akane/Natsumi got a haircut and so on. Also, Kogami was demoted. He saw the sculpture-corpse of one of his friends. So many things have happened since the last time they've met. And then you tend to think about this thing and not about other things. Also, Shinya has never imagined - like everyone else - that the victim of a case would become the next Inspector of Division 1. So, he didn't forget her, but after all the time he needed a bit to recognise and remember her completely.**

**Shinya recognising Akane when he saves her... you will have to wait and see. :)**

**In "past"-chapters or passages about Shogo and Akane (2102-2109) you can see that she's not the same Akane as we know her. And after her amnesia everything changes again.**

**lawliness: Pairings? You will have to wait and see... ^^ Also, I _won't_ retell every episode. Like I just skipped the drone factory episode...**

**And before I forget it: I want to thank you all - lawliness, FlawedPerception, Guest, Aira Aura and even sabriri1977 (yes, even you) - for your nice reviews.**

**And now: Enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Four:**

**The Faceless One**

* * *

_"And I sit here without identity: faceless. My head aches"_

* * *

November 2112

* * *

"Then please ask. What sorts of worries are burdening your friends?"

The CommuField was as full as always. If she had done something like that in the real world, she would have already broken down in embarrassment.

Natsumi took a deep breath. She had thought about it a long time. Her friend, Minase Kaori, had told her that Talisman´s advice was always the best. Kaori herself regularly went to him and asked him about different things. And they helped mostly. So Natsumi had wanted to try it out herself.

She took another deep breath before speaking up.

"They... the work they got involved in right after graduating... has important responsibilities... but that´s alright. They aren´t regretting it"

"I see", Talisman said.

_Should I really do it?_ she thought. _Should I really seek advice from some stranger?_

But now she had already got the opportunity to talk to Talisman. If she didn´t take it, she would probably never get one again. Talisman was really famous and in demand.

Once again Natsumi took a deep breath and forced herself to stay calm.

"Their problem has to do with workplace relationships. At that workplace there´s someone that could be called a subordinate or a mentor... a type of colleague that is hard to explain. There´s no avoiding him while at work"

Her heart was beating faster and faster.

"Is it an 'incompatible' type?"

"It´s... it´s not like that", she told him. Her avatar, Lemonade Candy, folded her hands together. Even in this holographic world they were shaking.

"However, they know this person from... they share a past together ‒ my friends and their... colleague. Until now they didn´t see each other and suddenly this colleague has completely changed. Back then he had been more friendly and warm. But now he´s cold and... denying. They have been... friends, I think. But now my friends worry about their colleague. They have no clue why he became like that and if they can keep or rebuild their former relationship"

Talisman nodded. "I see. Your friends should face him frankly and try to find out what had happened in these years of separation. Most likely their colleague has experienced something bad and now is traumatised of it. They should seek what had happened and try helping him out of it. Give this advice to your friends"

* * *

The little robots cleaned the room which was splattered in blood, skin and bowels. The view was disgusting but she couldn´t stop herself from watching the robots work.

Ginoza, Kunizuka and Kagari had shot him. Mido Masatake whose bowels laid all over the floor in his own blood had killed at least three people: Yuichi Tokito, Hayama Kiminiko and Sugawara Shoko. In the internet, the CommuField, they had been known as Rainy Blue, Talisman and Spooky Boogy. All of them had been the head of their own communities respectively but at some point they had neglected their positions and principles which had enraged Mido ‒ a huge fan of them. So he had killed them and taken their place. And because he had known them so well, he had done a nearly perfect job. Nobody had noticed anything until the toilet in Hayama´s apartment had broken down months ago without someone had alerted the building´s administration.

Natsumi put her hands onto a pure white table. They were shaking as they usually did. Sugawara Shoko, also known as Spooky Boogy, had been her classmate in high school. After the incident of three years ago when she had lost all her memories, Natsumi had struggled to remember everything what happened after this fateful day, so she was able to recall Shoko well. She had always been a bit crazy, but her psycho-pass had always been healthy. She had been nice and friendly and even if they had never been actual friends they had always greeted each other, talked or helped the other with homework. Shoko had been fun, Shoko had been nice. And now she was only a mere memory. Natsumi closed her eyes.

Back in school her hair hadn´t been red-haired and red-eyed. Eventually, she had dyed them after graduation. But, even if her appearance had changed, she had still remained as the same Sugawara Shoko as in school. She had even offered they help to find Talisman´s murderer. And because of her friendliness Mido had killed her.

Mido Masatake... he had been able to play persons so perfectly... but in the end he himself had been nothing. Employer of some unnecessary office, no friends, his family had turned away from him... His co-workers had told them that Mido hadn´t had any interests than CommuFields. While his acting skills had been perfect, his own person had been nothing more than an empty shell.

He had been a faceless one. He could have worn everyone´s face, but his own had been transparent and ghost-like. Had he even really existed?

A shiver ran through Natsumi´s body. She didn´t have an identity. Sekimoto Natsumi wasn´t her real name. The 20th of August wasn´t her birthday but the day Kogami Shinya had saved her from this burning house. She hadn´t have an idea if she had parents, if they still lived. If they missed her, if they had searched for her. If she had friends who missed and searched for her. Siblings or other relatives. If she had been loved in this lost life of hers.

Even if three years had passed she was still the little girl without memories, without past. And without memories and past, you could say that you didn´t have a face.

Like Mido Masatake hadn´t.

"Is everything alright?" Kagari suddenly asked and Natsumi opened her eyes before turning to him. In his brown eyes laid honest worry, so she forced herself to smile.

"Everything´s alright, Kagari-kun", she told him. _Liar._ "I was just thinking"

"About what, Natsumi-chan?"

She kept looking into his eyes. She had to. He shouldn´t know she was lying.

"About the case", Natsumi said and this had been only half true.

Kagari raised one eyebrow. "Really? You´re not lying?"

She smiled. "I´m not lying, Kagari-kun"

He didn´t put down this eyebrow. For minutes he just kept looking at her and then pointed at her hands. "They are shaking", Kagari told her silently and then walked away.

Natsumi stared after him and then folded her hands together, when the headache kicked in.

She rubbed her temples. Aches filled her head and left everywhere a numb feeling. Ever since they had completed the case of Mido Masatake her head felt like at the edge of breaking apart.

* * *

Natsumi was standing on the rooftop and looked up to the bright blue sky. The others were still downstairs but she had excused herself and went up, hoping that her headache would get better. Again she rubbed her temples. They hadn´t. Stupid headache.

She had no idea why exactly now her head had to pain her so much. The last time she had had headaches was... three years ago. At the time she had tried every day to regain her memories.

The wind brushed through her hair and over her numb head. Her head was empty. Pain had filled the emptiness. And because of that the steps were so terribly loud in her ears.

"You did quite well this time", Ginoza Nobuchika said. Her ears were ringing and her head spinning, still she could hear his words.

"In the end it was Kogami-san who identified the culprit", she told him, her own voice to loud in her ears. "To think that gasped how the culprit thought and foresaw things like that... I knew that he was good, but I never imagined that he was that good. Even after being... " The last word struck in her throat.

Ginoza was silent for a while, before continuing.

"That´s how Enforcer are, they can do that precisely because they have the same psychological tendency as criminals. You´re an Inspector, simply fulfill your duties as an Inspector"

"Is taint an ironclad rule for this job?" Natsumi wanted to know.

"No, that´s my rule of thumb" Again, silence.

"As you know... I already lost a partner to all this nonsense. He made a mistake and I couldn´t stop him. I don´t want you to make the same mistake"

Natsumi looked at him while Ginoza did something on his bracelet. Then her own peeped.

"This is a file of the personal department. I thought that you should know what had happened after the PF-0945 case. And even if you don´t believe what the file says... you should keep in mind that everything´s true what is written there. I know how highly you think of him because he had saved you... but you should know that everyone´s able to fall. Destroy it after you look through it", Ginoza told her in a monotone, frightening voice, before he turned and left her on the roof all alone. He didn´t even ask why she had came here in the first place.

Natsumi started onto the file which had been send to her kind of phone bracelet. The headache still knocked at her skull. Back then, three years ago, she had felt this kind of headache at her first day with Division One ‒ and on the day before starting to dream of the angel boy. Back then she had thought afterwards that someone she had seen or heard during this case had reminded her of something of her past ‒ resulting in causing her headaches. But now she was suffering of them again and Natsumi couldn´t understand why. What in this case had reminded her of anything?

Natsumi pressed her teeth together. _Enough_, she scolded herself, before she braced herself and opened the file.

* * *

**The quote is from "The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath" by - what a surprise - Sylvia Plath. And the title of the chapter is from "Skulduggery Pleasant - The Faceless Ones".**

**Some parts are from the manga "Inspector Akane Tsunemori" because I was to lazy to stop the episode every time I needed a line...**

**However... tomorrow's "Psycho-Pass"-day :D**

**Episode 5 of Season 2. And it _could_ be a wham episode. Like Episode 11 was in the last season. _Oh, Episode 11._**

**Or Episode 6 is.**

**However, I really hope that Mika will die (Seriously... she should die a few minutes after _she has finally understand that she was wrong and a complete asshole all the time_. I would do it if I was the writer. (Seriously, I would. "Next" will be a massacre... )). Not in tomorrow's episode... Any other episode of Season 2 is fine too.**

**(Also... "My" Mika of "Next" is the complete opposite of the canon one... I'm shocked. Shocked! I have never imagined her to be this... stupid.)**

**Also... I have the theory that Sakuya (*laugh*) is, in fact, either Kogami in disguise or a really, really evil person. (Or Kirito's former therapist who "cleared" him in a row of evil experiments... ) Or something like that.**

**However, I should stop talking about nonsense.**

**A nice day to everyone.**

**Momo**

_**\- currently struggling to write chapter ten**_


	6. Nobody Knows Your Past

**New chapter! :D**

**I wanted to upload it yesterday but after finishing chapter ten after I had a little blockade I just had to begin with chapter eleven which caused into me writing around 2000 words yesterday. (And it isn't even a bit finished.)**

**However.**

**Also... BrazeRancor: Akane was with Shogo for seven years. Not for three. And I think having the calm and friendly Akane around would have changed Shogo a bit/a lot. :) However, Akane from 2102-2109 is, in fact, another Akane as we know her. You will meet her in chapter nine. :)**

**And now: Enjoy reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Five:**

**Nobody Knows Your Past**

* * *

_"No matter how hard I tried. I wasn´t even able to recall a small fracture of my past"_

* * *

November 2112

* * *

Natsumi looked up the ceiling. Her headache had faded some time ago but still she wasn´t able to collect her mind properly.

_While investigating an unsolved case, MWPSB Special Case 102, his crime coefficient rapidly increased. He prioritised the investigation over therapy treatments. His crime coefficient deviated from the regular value and thus was demoted to Enforcer._

She clutched her star-shaped pillow. This case... for some point the investigation of this case had been important enough for Kogami to risk everything: This job, his future... Natsumi wondered what this "Special Case 102" actually was.

"_Try to find out what had happened in these years of separation. Most likely their colleague has experienced something bad and now is traumatised of it. They should seek what had happened and try helping him out of it"_

She stood up, putting the pillow away. Even if she hadn´t had enough sleep, it was time for work.

* * *

Today the office was silent.

Kogami, Kagari and Masaoka were off duty, leaving Natsumi all alone with the all-silent Kunizuka and Ginoza. Only the regular sound of tipping filled the room. When it was time to go home and Kunizuka went to her Enforcer apartment, Natsumi hurried to catch Ginoza before he went home. She needed answers so badly.

"Ginoza-san!" she called after him and he turned when she ran towards him. _Now or never, Sekimoto._

"The file... ", she started and his eyes immediately darkened.

"I see. I should have never given it to you"

Natsumi stared at him.

"Wait? No! I mean... I mean... I wonder... The file quite lacks information. I just wanted to know what this 'Special Case 102' actually was. I mean... Kogami-san risked everything to solve it and in the end... he failed. This case had meant so much for him and... "

Ginoza glared at her. "Three years ago you was probably helpful, but in the end case PF-0945 was also only solved partly. Still I have no idea why you´re not able to figure it out on your own why Special Case 102 was and is so important to Kogami. Probably because of the very same reason why you don´t want to believe that there´s no information about you, Inspector Sekimoto"

With these word he left her in the corridor.

* * *

They were off duty.

Today was a calm day and only the two Inspectors, Ginoza Nobuchika and Sekimoto Natsumi, along with Enforcer Kunizuka Yayoi had to go to the office. On his days off Kogami Shinya usually picked up his physical training, read or searched in his files of old cases. But today he had to give all his attention to Kagari Shusei who had decided to visit him.

"Oy, Ko", he said, grinning.

Kogami looked up from the book he had read until now. "Kagari... what do you want?"

Kagari shook his head. "No need to be so impolite, Ko"

He offered himself a seat and crossed his arms behind his head. Suddenly his expression turned serious. Kogami rarely saw Kagari serious.

"Yesterday... yesterday after we killed this Mido guy... Natsumi-chan behaved strange"

"I have no idea what you mean"

Kagari gave him a death glare.

"You´re such a bad liar, Ko. I _know_ that you exactly know what I am talking about. You can´t fool me. I saw with my very own eyes that you saw what I did. I mean... you _stared_ at Natsumi-chan quite openly"

Kogami blinked. "I did not _stare_"

A grin formed all across his face.

"See? You lied. Also you _totally_ stared, Ko. No defense"

Kogami sighed and put the book away. He wouldn´t get much chance to read it anymore anyway.

"What do you want, Kagari?"

Again, this serious look.

"Natsumi-chan probably didn´t lie when she told me that she thought about the case. But that doesn´t mean she told the entire truth. She held something back. I know that. I think this whole case had reminded her of her own facelessness. I know of the PF-0945 case, Ko. I know that you saved her from this burning house and that she doesn´t remember anything from the time prior. And that Shion wasn´t able to find a matching file to her hue and crime coefficient. This case... This case probably has reminded her that she doesn´t have a real identity either. 'Sekimoto Natsumi' is a fake name, ya? I have no idea how she has come up with that, she never told me, but I know that she just has this name because... somehow we need to address her after all, don´t we?"

Her name. Yes, Kogami remembered.

"And why are you telling me all this?"

"I thought that because you quite like her... "

"We were kind of partners in the PF-0945 case", Kogami interjected.

"... that you could help me finding some information about our lovely Natsumi-chan"

"I hope you know that we already did it and found _nothing_"

"You were all busy with this arsonist back then. Probably you missed something. Probably something like some immensely worried parents who desperately seek for their for three years missing beloved daughter? I mean... she needs to have parents. She´s not a robot or a cyborg after all. Or some kind of creepy clone. Probably she is a creepy clone. This would explain why there wasn´t any information... "

"You´re drifting away, Kagari"

"Oh, sorry. The thing I mean is that I want you to help me finding information about her. She deserves to know who she is"

Kogami sighed again. "Why do you want to do this so badly?"

"She´s my friend. I never met anyone who treated Enforcers like humans. She´s different and she´s my friend. And I want her to be happy. You know this beautiful smile of hers, right? Don´t you, Ko? I think the world would die if she would lose it"

Of course, he knew it. He could remember perfectly the day she had first showed him this smile.

_"Well... Natsu-chan, you should smile more often. It really suits you. And I mean it. It´s beautiful"_

Sasayama had been right. It was beautiful. Everyone said this. And everyone was right.

Kogami cleared his throat.

"Very well. I will help you"

* * *

They combed through everything they could have found.

Missing reports, registers of finger prints, birth and death registers, hue and psycho-pass registers, news records around the time of three years ago, reports of cases of three years ago...

Kagari shook his head. "We can´t possibly see through all of them before we´re one hundred and seventy-three, Ko. It´s hopeless"

Kogami glared at him. "Do I have to remind you that this was your idea?"

"Do I have to remind you that you didn´t do anything to stop me? It´s as much my fault as it´s yours"

Kogami rolled his eyes and searched through the missing reports. In today´s world it was almost impossible to get missing. Or better: It was almost impossible to get missing under the watching eyes of Sibyl. Still there had been four reports of missing people around that time.

Kugo Ai. Tsuji Shisui. Wanjima Suzu. Yoshida Teru.

Tsuji Shisui was a man, so there were only Kugo Ai, Wanjima Suzu and Yoshida Teru left. But the pictures their scared parents had given to the Bureau didn´t even look a bit like Natsumi: Dyed dark blue hair, a big ribbon in the hair, a narrow face, a incredibly round face, a tanned skin... It wasn´t even really possible to state if those were even humans.

Also, everyone was found except Yoshida Teru who was found but dead ‒ pierced with a part of a fence.

Kogami ran his hand through his hair as he went to the other cases. Burglary, murder, kidnapping... and all these cases there wasn´t anything which could be tracked back to Natsumi. He could hear Kagari sigh deeply. The birth and death registers didn´t give any information either, it seemed.

And also didn´t the news records, the registers of finger prints and like back then the hue and psycho-pass registers.

"_Does_ Natsumi-chan even exist?" Kagari burst out and angrily punched the next wall.

_"It´s a strange feeling to know that you don´t exist at all"_

* * *

January 2110

* * *

_His heart beat fast._

_Today he had found sometime at the scene of the crime. A old picture. A old picture which the culprit had lost there. He __had __already scanned it for finger prints but there weren´t any. So the only thing he had as a clue in this case was this single picture. This little, old picture._

_But he did find something. And this made him proud._

_He looked at the picture again and again, but he had no idea what exactly it should show. It was a photograph but for some point it was faded and blurred and he could only recognise a faint silhouette. Probably it was the one of a little person. Or it was a bigger one and the photo had been taken from far away. But something was clear to him: This was a person on the picture and the person was a girl._

_The waving skirt of her dress ‒ or was it just a skirt? ‒ said everything._

_He didn´t think that this girl or this woman was the culprit. Still this photo was important because if he knew who this person in the picture was it would be easier to find the culprit._

_He grinned and pinned the picture between the photo he had taken with Kogami and the last photo he had taken with little Sekimoto Natsumi of case PF-0945._

_The photo were he had slung his arm around her shoulder, the sun had painted the sky in a brilliant red and her smile had been sad but bright. He smiled when he looked at the picture and took it down to be able to look at it better._

_He had loved these days with Natsumi and Kogami. She had enliven and brightened everything, even created sensations in their life. He had a ton of pictures of her and most of them decorated his wall. But most of them showed just her or her with him. They had only taken one picture together with Kogami. And because he loved it the most he had it framed._

_But the one in his hand was beautiful too._

_He ran his thumb over the picture. He missed these times. Even if it had __just __been four months ago._

_He wondered how Natsumi was doing today. How she managed this life without memories. And if he could be able to convince Kogami to allow him visiting her._

_Sasayama Mitsuru stood up and pinned the photograph back next to the blurred evidence picture of the girl in the waving dark blue skirt._

_But this would have to wait after he had concluded his case._

_He couldn´t await it._

* * *

**I know. I'm a terrible person.**

**The last passage - the first Sasayama-passage - is kind of depressing, I know. I mean... when you know when he died...**

**However, the quote is a quote you will not find anywhere because it's from some of my original works. I thought it fit and so I translated it to English and wup, another quote.**

**And the title of the chapter is based of the Season 1 episodes "Nobody Knows Your Mask" and "Nobody Knows Your Face". You know. From the Talisman-Spooky Boogie-Mido-case.**

**Okay. I don't have much to say now.**

**See you next time!**

**Momo**

_**\- currently working on chapter eleven**_


	7. Red Like Sunset

**Hey. It's me again.**

**Today's chapter is a special chapter as it centers only around Shogo and Akane. And before you read it, you have to know that my seventeen-year-old Makishima Shogo is _quite_ a different person from the canon twenty-seven-year-old Makishima Shogo.**

**And now without many talking: Read and enjoy!**

* * *

**Chapter Six:**

**Red Like Sunset**

* * *

_"The sky, at sunset, looked like a carnivorous flower"_

* * *

November 2102

* * *

Three weeks ago he had found this little girl. And in these three weeks she had barely talked to him and hadn´t even told him her name.

It was disturbing.

The girl was sitting at the table and ate what he had cooked incredibly slow. Did children really eat so slowly? Did _he_ really eat so slowly as a child?

Inapprehensible.

Makishima Shogo watched her while she ate and probably because of that she was eating so slow. Probably she was still scared of him. Even after he had let her live in his own house for three weeks. He couldn´t imagine _why_ she should be scared of him in the first place. He didn´t do anything to her. He had brought her to his home. He had given her clothes, a shower, food and a own room. He brought her a pile of books he had already read and he had never shouted at her that she should tell him her name. He had been completely polite and nice. So ‒ why was she so scared?

Because he followed her around the house?

Oh.

_Oh._

"I´m sorry", he blurted out and the girl looked up. Now without the ash and dirt all over her body and clothes she was astonishing cute.

"I didn´t want to scare you. I won´t follow you anymore. I promise"

She blinked at him and then gave him a shy smile.

"I´m... I´m not scared of you, Makishima-san... ", she told him and Shogo´s eyes widened because she had never said so much to him before.

"And... and I didn´t even notice that you we´re following me"

Holy shit of "Virgin" Maria.

Shogo felt the blood vanishing from his head. Then he cleared his throat and tried looking casual.

"Of course, I don´t follow you. Why I should do such a thing?"

"But you just said... "

"I didn´t say _anything_, Girl. You´re imagining"

Again she gave him this smile. "As you say, Makishima-san"

Then she ‒ finally! ‒ finished her lunch and he could do the washing up. When he was done he turned to the girl who was now lying on his couch and read _Sherlock Holmes_. He had done the same when the had been a child: Always lying on the sofa and reading _Sherlock Holmes_. His mother had been sometimes upset because he never went out and only besieged the only place she could sit in for watching TV. Good old times.

In the last three weeks Shogo hadn´t done anything to test this little girl if she really could control her crime coefficient like he could. But now it was time.

* * *

Later that day he sent her to bed early and then waited until she was asleep. He knew that he shouldn´t do anything like that. But he also knew that he had to.

When the girl was deep asleep he put on a scary mask and leaned over her. Then he pricked her into the cheek and then turned on the recorder with the scary monster tone. After a while she woke up and when she realised that some terrible monster was standing before her and made terrifying sounds she began to scream as hell and as his ears seemed to want to rip themselves away.

Shogo then stopped the sounds and took the mask of.

"It´s me. No screaming", he said in a deep voice.

He then put out a torch light and turned it on, letting the pale light illuminate his face from an angle which let his face be incredibly terrifying.

Again the girl started to scream when he started to laugh the laughter of a psychopathic maniac who ate little girls who ate too slowly together with carrots and potatoes.

Then he turned of the torch and sat next to her while she cried and put out his beloved psycho-pass measurement device which he lovingly called "PPMD".

Even after having lost her family and home, living while someone followed her around to watch her and being shocked twice quite horribly her hue was still perfectly clear and her psycho-pass didn´t even reach the twenty mark.

Astonishing.

For this excellent result Shogo let the girl sob into his arms and wet his shirt before she finally fell back into sleep.

* * *

The next day the girl was sitting as far as possible from him on the table. She had dark rings under her eyes and looked terrible.

For a little moment Shogo felt horrible for his actions but then dropped it. He had had to do it. There hadn´t been any choice for him.

He cleared his throat and the girl flinched as she feared he would sneak on her again.

"Today´s day is training day"

She looked up.

"T... Training? What training?"

Shogo smiled.

"You will see. Meet me in the garden when you have finished. And _please_ for heaven´s sake, eat fast"

* * *

The girl looked small and terrified when he met her in his garden.

His garden consisted of lawn. Lawn and more lawn. Oh, yes, and a single tree on a little heightening which Shogo liked because it was an apple tree.

When he had been a child his mother had always been in the garden, planting flowers of every type and colour, trees of every height and everything until you wasn´t able to see the ground. He had liked his mother´s garden, especially the hammock he could lay in and read. Sadly, he had to leave it behind when he had moved into this house far, far away from civilisation.

Shogo looked to the girl. Now or never.

"Do you know why I rescued you from this dark street?"

She shook her head.

"Guess"

The girl thought a minute and then smiled shyly.

"Probably... probably you´re just a very nice person?"

He smirked.

"I´m afraid but this isn´t the right answer, Girlie"

She paled and then tried again.

"Probably... probably... probably you like eating little girls?"

"With carrots and potatoes? Hell, no. One more time, Girlie Girl"

"Probably you´re lonely", she blurted out and rapidly covered her mouth.

He frowned at her.

"Why do you think I´m lonely?"

She looked down to the endless lawn. "I... I... You see... you live here all on you´re own. And this house is quite far away from everyone"

Shogo didn´t say anything for a while, his lips forming a perfectly straight line.

"I´m afraid... ", he started, saying his words incredibly slow. "... that this isn´t the answer I seek. However, the answer was that I wanted to surround myself with my own kind"

Now it was the girl´s turn to frown.

"But... but I´m not your sister"

"I´m not trying to find me a sister. And I don´t mean with 'my kind' 'my blood'. I want to tell you that you´re as special as I am"

"I have... I have no clue what you want to tell me"

"I mean... I shocked you last night, I saw you all scared in this street, I know that your parents died"

The girl flinched and suddenly he felt the urge to feel pity.

"However", Shogo continued, ignoring her flinching. "your psycho-pass´s still healthy and your hue isn´t even a bit clouded. Children are more affective to those things. For them managing to keep their psycho-passes clear is... really difficult, you know that? You do? Excellent. However, _you_ don´t seem to have any problems to keep it clean. Did you ever realise that? You didn´t? No? Really? What a shame. However, I want to tell you that after I tested you last night I have no doubt that you´re able to control your psycho-pass ‒ an ability I also possess. And I want you to be able to use this ability, this gift, on will"

* * *

After a long question-and-answer-session and four hours of intense training the girl still wasn´t able to control her psycho-pass. It was tiring.

He had explained her in every little detail what she had to do and still she stood there and concentrated without any results. Mortifying.

"Do you really think I can do this, Makishima-san?" the girl asked, sighing and with hanging shoulders.

"I believe that you can. You just need to practise", he told her and tried a nice smile. It didn´t terrify her, so he thought it was a success. "Or do you have another explanation for your all-clean-psycho-pass, Girlie?"

She looked down.

"No"

"See? And now ‒ focus, Girlie. We won´t get back in until you managed to change your crime coefficient on will"

With those words he leaned back against the tree and continued reading _1984_ by George Orwell.

It was one hell of a good book and the chances were very high that this would become his favorite book.

While reading this ridiculously good book Shogo looked up and watched the girl while she looked funny trying to focus and control what shouldn´t be controlled. Then he looked down on his beloved "PPMD" and sighed because nothing changed at all before turning all his attention back to _1984_.

The hours passed and Shogo was cold and hungry, his bottom and his back hurt and he was only one chapter away from finishing _1984_. The girl should better hurry herself up or they would have to spend the night in the garden.

And then suddenly the numbers changed slowly. Shogo put the damn good read _1984_ away and picked up his "PPMD". The girl´s crime coefficient rose and rose. The number climbed up and up, slowly but they did. They moved towards the thirty mark, the forty... until they reached the ninety and left one hundred behind, slowly moving against the mark where the MWPSB´s Dominator would turn into the feared Lethal Eliminator. And while the psycho-pass just wouldn´t stop rising the girl´s hue got darker and darker. From a very pale blue to a darker one to an even darker one, to light blue, to sky blue, to traffic blue, to Capri blue, to steel blue, to powder blue, to grey blue and before the colour changed from black blue to deep black and the numbers reached the four hundred mark the girl stopped focusing and the numbers rapidly went down to her usual eighteen and her hue became clean again.

The girl looked over him and smiled her shy smile. She breathed heavily.

"Was this okay?"

* * *

They laid on their backs under the big apple tree while they watched the sun set. From every sun state Shogo loved this one the most because at sunset the colour of the sky wasn´t the boring blue or the depressing grey anymore but a stunningly interplay of orange, yellow and red tones. His mother had been a painter and had loved it to speak with him about colours and telling him how much she enjoyed painting the sky at sunset or sunrise. Because at these times the sky shoved colours it didn´t throughout the day, colours so beautiful you could cry over them.

Shogo had enjoyed these talks with his mother.

He looked onto the sky and watched the sun fading away slowly. His mother had loved not only sunsets but also sunrises. He didn´t. He only liked sunsets because it seemed as the sky was bleeding out until only complete blackness was left.

He didn´t know why but he liked this thought.

And while he watched this fascinating interaction of colours Shogo suddenly remembered a day he had said goodbye to someone at sunset. He had no clue who this "someone" could be or why he remembered this right know or why the blurred memory took the feeling of being hugged by thin, fragile arms with it. Shogo had no idea and was too exhausted to think about it more.

He looked over to the girl who was lying next to him. She was exhausted of the long standing and focusing. He was impressed that she had managed to control her psycho-pass after all. After over eleven hours of sitting under this tree and waiting that the numbers on the "PPMD" changed Shogo had began to believe that he had been wrong, that this girl wasn´t like him after all.

To his fortune he hadn´t been after all.

"Akane", the girl suddenly said and Shogo turned to her again.

"Excuse me?"

She turned to him. "You asked me what my name was three weeks ago and almost every day after our meeting. It´s Akane. Tsunemori Akane"

He couldn´t help himself but widened his eyes. She had finally told him her name. And this name sounded strangely familiar in his ears...

"Tsunemori Akane?"

She nodded.

Shogo sat up and held his hand to her.

"Tsunemori Akane? My name is Makishima Shogo, a pleasure to meet you"

The girl ‒ Akane, the sunset girl ‒ blinked at him, then smiled, sat herself up and took his hand.

"It´s also a pleasure to meet _you_, Makishima Shogo"

And then she laughed and it was such a beautiful laughter but nothing compared to the shining smile she gave him afterwards.

* * *

**The quote is from Roberto Bolaños "2666". Sometimes I find quotes quite easily and sometimes I feel quite desperate when I don't find one for a chapter. And I was quite desperate when I didn't find one for this chapter. And then this one saved me! It's so beautiful and somewhat fit.**

**Originally, this chapter was meant to take place in _December_ 2102\. And then I realised, that this wouldn't make any sense. I mean... Shogo and Akane go out in this chapter and Akane wears only a dress. So, this chapter is now set in the beginning of November 2102.**

**I had so much fun writing this chapter. The two of them... imagining them to interact as child/teen was so much fun. And it's kind of sad that the next chapters around them will be more teen/adult. However, they are fun too. (I already wrote two chapters of teen-Akane and adult-Shogo)**

**Also, I liked it because I could describe colours. I can do it better in German, but trying it in English was really funny.**

**And I hope you like it how I formed their relationship. :) And, of course, it will grew in the next years.**

**"1984" is, actually, Shogo's favourite book. And I imagined that he would read it as a teen and begin to love it from the very first moment...**

**Tomorrow is "Psycho-Pass"-Day and are you all as excited as I am?**

**Also, I thought I could do "timeline" after every chapter which introduces new fragments of Shogo, Shinya and Akane's past.**

**For now on:**

_August 2084 - Shinya's birth_

_October 2085 - Shogo's birth_

_April 2092 - Akane's birth_

_October 2102 - Akane loses her family; Shogo finds Akane_

_November 2102 - Akane's first lesson from Shogo to control her special ability_

_August 2109 - Shinya finds Akane in the burning house (PF-0945)_

_December 2109 - Specimen Case_

_January 2110 - Sasayama's death, Shinya's demotion_

_November 2112 - Akane joins the MWPSB_

**Okay. Enough talking. Until next time!**

**Momo**

_**\- currently being really busy**_


	8. Suffering of Headaches

**New chapter!**

**I have already planned everything for this story. I have every quote, every chapter title, the outline of every chapter... But when I wrote those things down, I didn't _write_. And now I am writing and every time I think about the end of this story, I feel a bit terrible. However, this won't get me to change the ending. :)**

**(And to those who wondered why I didn't upload in a whole week (wow, such a long span), the answer is my beloved "Letters". You can read it if you want.:) )**

**And now: Enjoy reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Seven:**

**Suffering of Headaches**

* * *

_"I didn't feel physically sick. But mentally. My mind was twisting in so many ways. (...) We once saw a documentary on migraines. One of the men interviewed used to fall on his knees and bang his head against the floor, over and over during attacks. This diverted the pain from deep inside his brain, where he couldn't reach it, to a pain outside that he had control over."_

* * *

November 2112

* * *

"Can I come in?"

Kagari looked up and smiled when he saw her.

"Natsumi-chan! Of course you can!"

She returned the smile and then entered his Enforcer apartment. Every Enforcer had his own apartment in the tower of the MWPSB because they also needed a place to stay and live. She hadn´t been to one before and had never imagined them to be so big and... cheerful. Or was just Kagari´s like this?

Everywhere were gambling machines and things like that. Bright lights glistened though the room and cheered everything up. And Kagari stood behind a large island unit.

"Why did are you visiting me on this late hour?" he asked, grinning.

Suddenly Natsumi felt terrible because she wasn´t here to just visit him as a friend. She took a deep breath and clasped her hands together so they didn´t shake.

"I want to ask you about Special Case 102"

With her words his grin faded from his face.

"I´m afraid I can´t tell you anything... but... "

His smile returned to his face as he held up a bottle of alcohol.

"... but I think I _can_ when you agree to drink with me something"

* * *

After a half-full glass of wine Kagari was already completely drunk. Natsumi on the other hand was at her seventh glass and still felt perfectly balanced.

"Ko was already an Enforcer when I came to the MWPSB", he told her, his face all red and his word barely definable.

"So I don´t know much, sorry, Natsumi-chan. But I can tell you what I know"

He poured himself a new glass and sipped on it. With the wine they had also eaten something he had cooked. Natsumi had completely forgotten that he had told her back then that he was an excellent cook and loved cooking with actual ingredients and not those made of Hyper Oats. He had even invited her to cook her something but they never had had the time for it. Until now. Now after he had finally had the opportunity to cook for her _and_ to drink something with her to test how much she could hold, Kagari must be pretty satisfied.

"Special Case 102... Division One under Gino and Ko had been assigned to investigate it. The Enforcers were... Kunicchi, the old man and... Ko´s friend... I forgot the name... "

Kagari took another sip. He looked so drunken he should probably stop after this glass.

"Oh, now I remember. Sasayama something"

Something inside of Natsumi tightened and she drilled her fingers into her tights.

He looked at her and for a moment he thought he would question her about her exertion. "Why aren´t you drunk, Natsumi-chan? You drunk about seven or eight glasses full of pure, real wine" He hiccuped.

"I... I think _you_ just get too drunk easily", she replied as calm as she could.

Kagari looked at her for another moment before he continued.

"However, there had been an accident during the investigation, I think, and... and... this accident drove Ko mad and made him to a latent criminal. The end"

"What... what happened in this 'accident'?" Natsumi asked and felt like her inner exertion would break her body apart. She didn´t want to ask the question. She didn´t want to hear the answer. She already knew. She already knew and didn´t want to know.

But she needed confirmation.

Even if it would break her apart.

"Ah... Sasayama got killed dur... "

She didn´t hear his last words, she had already stood up and ran out of the room.

* * *

He ran his hand through his hair while he read _The Long Walk_ by Stephen King. Yesterday´s research had resulted in nothing, leaving even more questions than before. How could it be possible for someone to not appear in _any_ of the records? Probably Kagari had been right with his silly thought that Natsumi was in fact a cyborg.

Speaking of Kagari...

A completely drunken Kagari Shusei barged into his apartment and stopped when he leaned against a shelf.

"Ko, my friend", he hiccuped more than he said. "I don´t know... but I thought that I... I should inform you... "

Kogami sighed.

"What are you doing here, Kagari? And what do you want to tell me?"

Kagari grinned and waved a bottle of wine.

"I drunk with Natsumi-chan", he told her and hiccuped again. What a mess.

Kogami frowned. "You got yourself drunk with _Sekimoto_?"

His grin widened. "Yeah... "

"Don´t tell me she´s drunken too. Kagari, the girl has never _touched_ alcohol before"

"Hi hi. Why so protective, Ko-chan?" Kagari felt into a laughter full of hiccups. "And.. no, no. She´s tough. Not even a bit drunken after... after six glasses... a bottle? I forgot"

"Could you please stop to hiccup every minute and tell me what the matter is?"

"Ah... Didn´t I tell you already? Ah... I´ll tell again... "

He took a sip from the bottle and whipped the wine away which had stuck on his upper mouth with the back of his hand.

"Natsumi-chan ran off"

Again, Kogami frowned. "What do you mean _she ran off_?"

"Ah... I told her that this Sasa-guy died during this case, this case you... you know. And wup. She ran off"

Kagari took another sip and grinned at him while Kogami put the book away and stood up. He rushed to his colleague and put his hands on his shoulders. Because of the impact Kagari couldn´t take hold of the bottle anymore and it shattered in pieces when it touched the ground, the dark red wine covering the floor.

_"You told her that?_" he yelled at him.

"Eh? What the hell is your problem, Ko?"

Kogami took his hands off Kagari´s shoulders. He would take care of him later. Now only Natsumi mattered. Still he couldn´t possibly let him here in this state. Kogami punched him in the face and he immediately fainted. Before he fell Kogami caught him and left him on his sofa. Then he took his coat and put it on while he left his apartment and the sleeping Kagari behind and phoned Ginoza.

* * *

When she hadn´t seen Sasayama leaving the paddy wagon she had already known that something had happened. Like she had already known that something was wrong when she had found out that she was applied to Division One. Every Division only had two Inspectors. That there had only been one and she had to fill the hole had made her suspicious but Natsumi had thought, or hoped, that Ginoza or Kogami had simply been transferred to another Division for some point.

She really had.

And when Natsumi hadn´t seen Sasayama under the other Enforcer she began to think that he had been send back to the rehabilitation center. That his carelessness had cost him his job and he had been send back.

She hoped that so badly.

The city seemed cold around her when she walked blindly through it. She didn´t hear the noises of the cars, the bright lights of the big billboards were blurred in her vision. And she didn´t even feel like she was walking on ground but on clouds who could stop bearing her weight every moment.

Tears glittered in her eyes when she walked through the city so bright and warm, but for her only cold and grey.

She had never lost anyone before. Not that she remembered. So the emotions which filled her now where so new and overwhelming for her, it hurt. But she didn´t feel this way only because she now knew that Sasayama was dead, the Sasayama who had been her friend, the Sasayama who had given her her surname, but also because nobody had told her. Sasayama died three years ago.

_Three years._

Only a few months after she had said goodbye to everyone. After she had said goodbye to those she had thought were her friends. But which friends didn´t tell anyone someone was dead for _three years_? Who on earth did such a thing?

Natsumi ran through the city, her tears blurring her vision, pain filling her right leg. She just wanted to go as far away as she could. Away from the MWPSB and those she had called friends for so many years.

She ran and ran and didn´t stop. She had always been a good runner. She didn´t know why but in long distance runs she had always been the best. As she had trained to be one from the very beginning. Even if her leg was slightly damaged.

And while she ran she didn´t even realise that she had ran instinctively to this one special place ‒ the park she used to go to with Kogami and Sasayama.

Natsumi stopped when she realised and tears flowed down her cheeks when she saw that nothing had changed in all the years. And when this place let her recall so many happy memories of this one month with them. They had gone here so often... they had laughed here and Sasayama had given everyone death glares who had even _looked_ at her the wrong way. Here they had spend their last days together before they had gone to her apartment which she had in the Tower back then to watch every movie they could think of and laugh themselves into sleep. Unimaginable that Sasayama was now dead and Kogami so cold and aloof.

Seeing this place, this place she had never visited with her new friends, Funahara Yuki and Minase Kaori, hurt her so much... She couldn´t stop crying and her legs just didn´t want to hold her up anymore and see sunk to her knees, sobbing, her hands on her face. There wasn´t anyone in this park as usual. The park was too far gone from the actual city that someone would find her here crying. Here were street scanners and drones but no soul came to this place. Natsumi just cried and cried and didn´t even think about what her terrible sadness could do to her psycho-pass. She wasn´t afraid that for the first time in forever it could cloud.

For her this didn´t matter anymore.

* * *

Even if Ginoza hadn´t been amused that he had to pick up Kogami at the Tower at such a late hour and then had to search for Natsumi, he didn´t say anything. Not even when Kogami finally remembered the little, but incredibly beautiful park they used to go to and he had to drive there. Not even when they had found Natsumi on her knees in the middle of the park, her cries cutting through the cold night air.

And when Kogami had rushed towards her and helped her to her feet he hadn´t said anything either and had just gone back to the car to wait patiently.

Kogami Shinya had never been so grateful to his friend before than in this night.

Now he was holding the fragile body of Sekimoto Natsumi against his own, felt her warmth and her shivers ran through his body. He held her tight and let her cry in his coat. He didn´t say anything nor he did anything than holding her, giving her his silent support, helping her not to break down again.

And with the time her sobs lessened until they completely stopped and Natsumi fell asleep in his arms, her head against his chest. Her face and his coat were full of tears. Kogami scooped her up and carried her back to Ginoza and when they drove her to her apartment and he laid her onto her bed after he had taken off her coat and shoes and pushed the blanket above her body.

And when he left her apartment Kogami felt so terribly sorry that he hadn´t been able to save Sasayama. That he hadn´t told her this ages ago. That he had been so terribly stupid.

And with the door falling into the lock he wished patiently that he hadn´t erased her beautiful smile with this dreadful action of his. And that she would soon be okay. That she would be stronger than himself.

_"For such a little girl she´s quite tough, don´t you think, Kogami Shinya?"_

* * *

Her whole body hurt when she woke up. Her eyes burned like her body and she wanted to cry again but tears didn´t want to fill her eyes ‒ as she had emptied them.

"Good morning, Natsumi!" her holographic jellyfish shouted when it realised that she was awake. "Today´s lucky colour is light blue. Have a nice day with your all healthy psycho-pass!"

_Light blue?_

Natsumi sat up. How could this be possible? The brighter and cleaner the colour, the healthier the hue. The colour itself didn´t matter that much ‒ it only reflected emotions. The tone of the colour was the thing everyone worried about, not the colour itself.

But... _light blue?_

Light blue was a _very_ clean and bright tone of blue. Her hue had always been healthy but then she had never experienced such sadness before. Of course, she felt sadness due to her missing memories, her missing identity, but she had accepted it years ago ‒ more or less.

But how could her hue be still that clean when she had cried yesterday for... she didn´t know ‒ minutes? Hours? She couldn´t even remember going back to her apartment.

With shaking legs Natsumi stood up and went to the bathroom to shower and then ate breakfast which tasted awful today before she dressed herself. She had to go to work, even if she didn´t want to.

She looked into the mirror while she dressed. Her eyes weren´t red due to the sleep, but under her eyes were dark shadows. Of course, as a girl she could easily use make-up to let them vanish but she didn´t want to. And while she looked into this face ‒ this face of a pale, little girl with such a petite and fragile build ‒ she asked herself how someone with such a innocent looking face could be so heartless that her hue didn´t cloud by finding out that a close friend had died.

_Who I am?_ she asked her mirror self like she had done every day three years ago before leaving her apartment.

* * *

"Didn´t tell you anyone? You´re off duty"

Natsumi´s eyes widened when Ginoza spoke those words to her when she arrived at the office. Off duty?

She shook her head. "Impossible. I did a note for today that I _have_ duty today"

"I took you off by yesterday"

She frowned. "Why did you do that?"

"I thought that taking your condition yesterday it would be better for you to have the day off"

Natsumi stared at him but Ginoza had already turned his attention back to his computer.

* * *

"Natsumi-chan!" Karanomori Shion yelled when she entered the analyst´s lab.

"Take a seat!" Welcoming she pointed at one of the large grey sofas. Natsumi presented her a shy smile and sat down. Kunizuka Yayoi sat opposite from her and ate a cup of instant noodles. She nodded when she saw Natsumi.

"The last time you were able to escape but not today!"

The analyst crossed her legs and formed her bright red lips to a smile.

"Now. Tell me. What did you do after you said goodbye to us all?"

"I went to school"

"The MWPSB sent you to school? I thought they already sent you to the training school because you were such a great help during the PF-0945 case"

Natsumi shook her head.

"My help wasn´t reported. Ginoza-san thought it would be better if the Chief and other didn´t know"

Karanomori raised one eyebrow.

"Really? Inconceivable. Taking all the fame for himself" She shook her head. "Unbelievable our Gino-san"

"No, no. I think he was right. I mean... I think I wasn´t in the condition to be an Inspector back then. I lost my memories and everything. I needed time. And I think I have never got this time when he didn´t have erased my participation on this case"

Karanomori shook her head again. "Nice like ever, na, Natsumi-chan? Okay. Enough. How was school?"

Natsumi folded her hands over her lap. "I´m still unsure how I actually felt when I went to school"

"What do you mean?"

She took a deep breath. "I mean... I was seventeen at that time. And before the accident I should haven gone to school, shouldn´t I? But when I went to school after saying goodbye... everything felt so incredibly new and not even a bit familiar. As I never went to school before"

"But you could read, write, solve calculations and everything. You could even quote Shakespeare and other famous writers. How did you learn all this then?"

"I thought about it too. I mean... it doesn´t make sense, right? I could do most of the things way better than the others because everything we did in school seemed so familiar but not school itself. Not this whole school system. However, I became accustomed to school with the time, even if I was always bored", Natsumi confessed shyly.

Karanomori clapped her hands together and laughed. "I´m really curious why you know all those things despite having never been to school before. However, did you find some friends?"

She nodded. "Only a few"

"Names?"

"Funahara Yuki and Minase Kaori. They like teasing me with the fact that I lost my memories and everything. Still they are really nice and help me with everything when I need it"

"This is nice to hear" Karanomori leaned back, smiling. And then she suddenly frowned. "Hm... Something occurs to me... why aren´t you at work, Natsumi-chan?"

Natsumi sighed. "Ginoza-san took me off work today"

"Why... oh, now, I remember. I could take it out of Shinya-kun yesterday" Karanomori´s face suddenly went all sad. "you were friends with Mitsuru, I remember. I´m sorry"

"He´s... he´s long dead, Karanomori-san", Natsumi said, biting her lips. "I mean... it isn´t like he died yesterday. He died _three years ago_. I just... I just found out yesterday"

"I´m so sorry, Natsumi-chan. We all wanted to contact you. I mean... we all know where you live. The MWPSB picked the apartment for you, after all. But Shinya... Shinya didn´t want you to know. I´m sorry that you had to get to know it like that"

Natsumi stared at her. Kogami had said everyone that they shouldn´t say anything to her? Why should he do something like that?

She clutched her hands tighter and took a deep breath. _Not now. I can ask him later._ "Actually, Karanomori-san... I didn´t come to you to chat... "

Karanomori sighed. "I know. I knew it from the second you came in. You don´t have a perfect poker face, you know? However... do you really want to know more about Mitsuru´s death?"

Natsumi nodded certainly.

"I want to know everything about Special Case 102"

"I see" Then she turned and tipped something on her keyboard. "Three years ago, only a few months after you said goodbye Special Case 102 occurred. We nicknamed it the 'Specimen Case'. It was a serial murder. A pretty gruesome one"

She tipped something and holograms of terrible statues filled the room. Natsumi´s eyes widened and she thought that she would have to puke.

"The murderer did not only kill his victims, he made them to statues with the help of plastination"

_Plastination?_ Natsumi frowned and pain suddenly started to fill her temples.

"The murderer had been Toma Kozaburo, a teacher at Oso Academy. But even we found out that he had been the culprit, we couldn´t catch him and his whereabouts are still unknown"

The pain rose but Natsumi ignored them as good as she could. Karanomori quit the holograph. For a moment nobody said a word and Kunizuka eating her noodles like nothing was the only sound in the room.

"Oh, I´m sorry, Kunizuka-san. I didn´t intend to speak about such things before you", Natsumi said rapidly. Kunizuka looked up but Karanomori was the one answering.

"It´s okay, Natsumi-chan. Yayoi is into much more cruel and passionate stuff. Don´t worry"

Before she could ask what this should mean her bracelet rung and she answered.

"Sekimoto speaking"

"It´s me. Ginoza. I think I now have a job for you"

* * *

Watching Kogami train reminded Natsumi of something, but she couldn´t quite remember of what. Again, pain filled her temples and she bit her lips when she kneaded them with her thumbs. She had them since yesterday and whatever memory tried to reach her because whatever had reminded her of it, it just wouldn´t understand that it would never succeed. That she was reminded of something again didn´t help.

During his training he didn´t look at her but when he finished and took sips from his bottle he eyed her from the corner of his eyes.

"Is something wrong?"

"Headaches", she mumbled. Hell, the pain hurt so much. She couldn´t even catch a clear thought. It was depressing.

"But nothing serious", she hurried to say. She didn´t want him to worry about her. Even if he had been to one who had concealed her the truth and forced the others to remain silent too, she just couldn´t be angry at him. Natsumi wanted answers and even if she didn´t want to be here, she knew this was the best time to seek for them.

Kogami nodded. They didn´t say a word for a while and then he was the one who spoke first.

"You´re not asking why I´m training so much"

Natsumi frowned. "Should I?"

"I thought that it would be strange for you. It was strange for everyone else"

She shook her head.

"No. I don´t know. I quite understand why you´re training so much. Like I used to watch someone train and I already asked the question and got an answer. It´s strange"

He nodded again and then she followed him in his Enforcer apartment. Kogami put on a shirt which she was thankful for and then took a sit after offering her one.

"I´m sorry that I never visited you with Sasayama after you left. Or called. Or informed you about his death. I´m sorry", he said seriously and looked into her eyes. This surprised Natsumi but there wasn´t a doubt that he was absolutely serious.

"At the time of his death you were just transferred back into a normal life. You already grew accustomed to everything again. I didn´t want to ruin the new happy life you got. I wanted to tell you later. But you know... my psycho-pass rose too much and I was demoted and didn´t have the opportunity anymore. In the end I troubled you even more. I´m sorry, Inspector"

Natsumi clutched her hands together. With the headache they had started to shake again almost endlessly. She didn´t want him or anyone else to see it. They shouldn´t worry about that.

"I... ", she started but then stopped herself and looked down. She needed to collect her thoughts which was pretty difficult because of the headache which became more intense every minute.

"I... I understand", she finally said. "I have no idea if I can forgive you... but I can understand your thoughts"

"You don´t have to forgive me, Inspector", Kogami whispered. Or did he spoke normal and it was only a whisper for her because the headache numbed her ears? She clutched her hands tighter together.

"I just don´t understand why Sasayama-san was killed"

Kogami sighed. "He worked himself up over this case and I had to take him off the case like Gino did it to me. He told you. Because our current case resembles the Specimen Case and I worked myself up over it too after Sasayama died and this caused my demotion. However, Sasayama just wouldn´t stop to investigate this case and someday he found the culprit, escaped from the MWPSB tower and hurried after him. He found him and then they probably fought and during their fight he got killed and was later made into one of this sculptures. I found the sculpture and it drove me literally mad. I just couldn´t understand why someone could do such gruesome works and it raged me that Sasayama was also made into one of them. I still hear his last words to me very clear in my mind, like he was standing beside me. I think I will never forget them"

"What did he say?" Natsumi´s question wasn´t more than a whisper. Kogami didn´t answer and because the breaking silence hurt in her ears for some point and even worsened her headache she spoke up.

"So... he found the culprit all on his own?"

Kogami nodded and stood up. He took a picture off his picture wall and handed it to her.

"Sasayama was able to take this picture. But it is blurred and you can´t recognise much. Still it´s the only picture we have from the culprit"

"I thought Toma Kozaburo had been the culprit", Natsumi said, eying the photograph. It really was blurred and unrecognisable. Everything she could recognise was long white hair. For some point the pain grew at this.

"He was the main culprit but the one who had killed Sasayama and the one he was after was another one. The one in the picture", Kogami explained her.

"I found the photo in his computer. The file name was 'Makishima'"

And with this words the pain literally exploded in her head and she felt like her head was about to rip itself up and the pain not only ran through her head but also through her whole body, leaving numbness everywhere, emptying her that only a shell remained. The pain brought tears to her eyes and she didn´t hear Kogami´s voice anymore nor her own scream when the pain stretched through every centimeter of her. And then after an eternity the pain faded away and blackness caught her up.

* * *

**The quote is from Jay Asher's "Thirteen Reasons Why" which is a really good book, along with his other book "The Future of Us" (written with Carolyn Mackler).**

**Yeah. That's it.**

**Natsumi finally got to know what has happened to Sasayama. (And it _will_ be exploded how close those two were.) And the expected super-painful headaches. What they will do to her, if they do anything else than to annoy, you will know by chapter ten, because... chapter nine is solely around "past"-fragments. You will finally get to know Natsumi was as Akane after she was found by Shogo and how their relationship was like. And some other things... (which will hopefully answer some questions and let you ask new ones.)**

**Oh, the next chapter will be funny.**

**I think, I will upload it by the end of the week? I don't know. Let's see...**

**Also, I finished chapter twelve by yesterday and... I thought of it as a _short_ chapter. It turned out as long and... weird.. But to this later.**

**Tomorrow is "Psycho-Pass"-Day again! :D In the last week we've found out that... **

_***spoiler for Ep 06***_

**Sakuya is evil as hell and wants to _taint_ Akane! Akane! CA-Powder-blue-Akane! I knew all the time that he was evil and just wanted to confuse her with this Shinya-acting. I think Kirito will die in Ep 07 or Ep 08 and Sakuya will take his role as the main enemy. I really want to see everyone's face when they find out how evil he is, in fact. And his face when he notices that he just _can't_ taint Akane. :) Also, I think Sakuya trying to taint her will take up a larger role in the next episode, or in the next two.**

_***spoiler end***_

**However, I'm _really_ excited. This will be great. And I hope that neither Ginoza nor Sho dies. We know that Akane won't die because she's appearing in the Movie, but I like those two and really hope they will survive.**

**Okay... I annoyed you enough with my speculations for today... so...**

**Until next time! Have a nice day!**

**Momo**

_**\- currently working on the chapter where the "Fox Hunt"-mini serie starts.**_


	9. Reaching Out

**Finally - chapter nine. The chapter nine who will answer many, many question and will bring many, many question to life. Also, this chapter is my personal favourite one and I'm happy that I can finally share it with you.**

**Writing Shogo and Akane interact before her amnesia is such a pleasure. Especially, when a certain Korean genius is around. It is really funny because he has raised her to be kind of... hm... read it for yourselves^^**

**However, the "Shogo and Akane"-part is, in fact, not even the part which fills half of the chapter. The other part is a part into a new series of flashbacks. And I really hope you like it, because writing it was really funny and I'm quite pleased of the way it turned out.**

**And now: Enjoy reading!**

* * *

**Chapter Eight:**

**Reaching Out**

* * *

_"Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Just walk beside me and be my friend"_

* * *

July 2107

* * *

He could see that she was examining him suspiciously.

A few weeks ago he had befriended a computer genius from Korea who had been send to Japan after Korea had been destroyed in the war. Ten whole years he had wandered around aimlessly with no one dignifying his mastermind until he had met in a little café Makishima Shogo who had talked to him and noticed how brilliant he was. He and Choe Gu-sung, the genius, had met regularly in the last weeks but Shogo had never told this to the girl with the long brown hair who was now eying his new friend. But of course she had noticed that he was concealing something from her and took him to task. So Shogo didn´t have a choice but bring Choe to his home so she could meet him.

Choe was now one hour in his house and seemed pretty uneasy with her staring at him like that. They sat in the living room with tea, cookies and madeleines. Nobody said a word in the last forty-five minutes and the only sounds in the room where the ticking of the clock and Choe swallowing on a regular basis.

The whole scene was so incredibly ridiculous.

However, Shogo shouldn´t be the the one complaining. He had taught the girl for the last five years not to trust anyone and analyse everything and many, many other things, after all.

The girl, his ward, Tsunemori Akane, had absorbed everything he had taught her in the past five years and emerged as a prodigy. She had quite been the modest girl when Shogo had found her, so he had to prove her that she was indeed very intelligent and talented. Now, she was still modest but also much more confident.

Probably he should have warned Choe before he had brought him to meet her.

After another fifteen minutes, Shogo couldn´t stand this anymore and sighed.

"Akane, please. He can be trusted"

She turned to him and her wide eyes narrowed. It looked strange.

"How can you be sure? He´s a hacker! He´s hundreds of years old! He came here _for a mission_. I wonder what kind of mission that was. Probably he´s just a spy"

"A spy for whom? For those of the Korean military? Of the Korean military _which doesn´t exist anymore because Korea was destroyed years ago_? And he isn´t hundreds of years old and if he was this should matter here!"

"Once a spy, always a spy", Akane replied with confidence and flattened her blue dress.

"You scare him, you know that?"

She shrugged. "I would have never thought that a spy could be so easily scared"

"Not that you´re scary, but you _stare at him all the time_. You know how impolite this is"

"_You_ stared at me all the time _and_ followed me all around after you bought me here"

"I needed to _test_ you. _You know that_. Also you said you didn´t notice it after all. I also thought you couldn´t even remember it"

"I remember _everything_. Even if I didn´t notice, you _told_ me that you were stalking me. Also who doesn´t say that I´m _not_ testing the Korean here?"

Shogo sighed. "Akane, you´re being ridiculous"

"I´m not. _You_ taught me to be careful after all. You. It were your words. You can´t argue with your own words, Sho"

"Sometimes I wonder why I even saved you"

"Because you needed company"

"I had Senguji and my books, I didn´t need company"

Akane rolled her eyes in annoyance. "You were lonely, Sho. Toyo is a hundred-year-old cyborg and a complete maniac. And books aren´t company, not matter how brilliant they are. They can´t talk in the normal way. Also you thought I was interesting, what I was. I mean... we´re alike after all. I can´t believe you forgot this _again_"

Shogo should count how many times he had sighed and how many times he would. Now it was three times. "I told you not to call Senguji like that. Nobody likes that. Also I think I should be the one rolling his eyes in annoyance, not you"

"_I_ think it´s nice. It´s better than 'Senguji' and _much_ shorter than 'Toyohisa'", she said, ignoring Shogo´s last sentence.

Another sigh. "It´s just the half of it, Akane"

"So what? 'Sho' is just sixty percent of 'Shogo' and nobody had a problem with _that_"

"Akane, I have no idea what the hell is wrong with you today but you need to stop. Please. Choe is going to cry any minute"

"I´m _not_", Choe protested but was ignored by everyone.

"Nothing is wrong with me, Sho-chan. I just do what you have taught me!" Akane replied.

"I never taught you to call me 'Sho-chan' or to scare people, Akane" Another sigh.

"I think _you´re_ the one being ridiculous"

To everyone´s surprise she turned to Choe who had started to sweat and went all pale.

"Do you also think that Sho is the one being ridiculous, Choe-san?"

He hesitated for a moment and then simply nodded. Akane smiled.

"Oh. I think I should overthink my opinion of you, Choe-san"

Then she stood up and put the tea and the food away. During that Shogo had the chance to smell her lovely apple shampoo. For some point she was always using apple shampoo and was always angry with him when she noticed that he had used it too. Once he had asked her why she always used shampoo with the smell of apples but she had just shrugged and told him that she had always done it but couldn´t remember why. It was a tradition, kind of.

When Akane was in the kitchen Shogo turned to Choe.

"I´m sorry. Akane has lost her family. Because of that she worries that someday someone of my companions could turn out as a traitor and kill me. I´m everything she has. So she´s so suspicious of everything and everyone. But she´s a nice girl after all. She´s just easily frightened. Trust me"

Choe swallowed. "Did you take her in because she´s also able to control her psycho-pass, right?"

Right after he had finished Akane hurried back to the living room and stared at Shogo with wide eyes.

"_You told him?_"

"I did not", Shogo answered honestly. After they had found out that she had the same ability like he, he had determined not to say this to Senguji or anyone. It should be a secret. It was better if nobody knew that she was like him because this would mean that she was safer than himself and he wanted her to be safe.

"You lie. You promised me to never lie to me. And now you are lying" Her voice was shaking.

"I´m not lying, Akane. He´s... ", he wanted to say but was cut off by Choe.

"I figured it out myself"

Akane turned her gaze to Choe.

"Makishima told me from his ability but not that you could also do it. But I know him and he would have never taken you in because of pity. And when you said that you and he were alike, I knew that you meant that you´re in possession of the same ability as Makishima. I figured it out myself, Tsunemori-san"

She had gone to Shogo and was now holding his arm tightly.

"I won´t tell anyone", Choe continued. "I promise. And I´m not lying"

"Akane", Shogo began. "Choe is a trustful man. He won´t betray us. Senguji could... but never Choe. He was wandering around without aim for the past ten years and searched for a home. You should understand. You were wandering around aimlessly yourself, Akane. I gave you a home, a place to stay, and you never betrayed me, you never would. Why do you think Choe would? He just wants to accompany us. Unlike Senguji he doesn´t have anyone he knows in this country. Even if he wanted to betray us, there´s nobody he could give out information to. And when Choe turns out as a spy who has heard of our ability and tries to kill us or sell us out to the System, I will do anything I can to protect you. I promise, Akane"

He brushed away her hand and took it into his. He squeezed it softly.

"But what about you?" Akane asked.

"I´m a grown man, Akane. I´m twenty-two. I´m able to take care of myself. And of course, I would kill Choe if he tries to kill me or sell me out too. I promise, Akane. Nothing will happen to you, nothing will happen to me" He squeezed her hand again and looked into her eyes. "I promise that nothing, I mean nothing will ever break us apart. I will promise it to you how often you want me to because I mean it. And even if I consider Choe as a friend, he has to die if he wants us to break us apart. I promise, Akane"

Slowly she nodded and behind them Choe went pale again.

* * *

June 2095

* * *

Limbs cracked under his feet when he walked around in the forest. There weren´t much forests left in the country and he had been lucky to move to a place where forests weren´t rare. He had moved alongside his mother to this city three months ago. Before that he had lived in the Kanagawa Prefecture. His father had just died and his mother couldn´t stand their old house anymore, the house of memories, so they had moved.

He hadn´t protested when his mother had told him that they would move to Chiba because he hadn´t wanted to trouble her even more and also he couldn´t stand their old home anymore too. He had loved his father, adored him. That his father suddenly died due to a heart attack had been a shock to him. Kogami Shinya would have never guessed that his father would leave him so soon, he was just ten, after all, and his father had always been a healthy man.

Shinya looked up and saw thin rays of light fighting through the thick canopy of leaves. His mother had told him to go out and find friends because she couldn´t see him all alone and silent on the sofa anymore. After his father´s death he had read, read and... read. He had barely talked to anyone which had greatly disturbed his mother. And because he didn´t want her to be upset he had gone out but he doubted that he would find any friends in a forest.

Since two months he attended one of Chiba´s primary schools in class five and Shinya was already bored of his new classmates. Nobody of them seemed to share any of his interests: Books, martial arts, playing video games, how to figure out the sharpest comments...

Some of his classmates collected stones as hobby. They even had a own club. The "Stone Collectors Club for Lovable Persons".

_They collected stones_. He was in a class where fifty percent of the people collected damn _stones_. Shinya didn´t have a clue what was so interesting in stones and if this was some serious disease he could also get. However, even if collecting stones was boring and totally not interesting at all, it wasn´t a bad thing. Nothing why you shouldn´t be friends with those who did it. But the members of this "Stone Collectors Club for Lovable Persons" weren´t lovable at all. Shinya regularly caught some of the members throwing their beloved stones at other children.

And his mother couldn´t possibly want him to hang out with a bunch of stone throwers.

The other fifty percent were either girls ‒ which didn´t mean that no girl was in the "Stone Collectors Club for those who want to learn how to aim properly", there were, in fact, quite a lot ‒ who talked about beauty things or ponies all day, people who picked their noses _during class_, boys who liked bullying others and would probably become latent criminals when they grow up or in a month, people who had no idea of anything and were dumb as hell and so on. Not that Shinya was a choosey boy... he just didn´t think that he could be friends with some of them, so he had decided to only fullfil one of his mother´s two tasks: Going out.

Birds chirped in the woods and he saw a squirrel running around in the canopy. Probably his mother was right and he should go out more often. After the loss of his father it was good to walk through silence, so he was able to clear his mind from everything. It felt great.

Shinya continued walking for a bit and breathed the fresh air in and out when he heard limbs cracking around him. There weren´t any big animals in forests anymore ‒ they had been send to a zoo a long time ago. And little animals usually weren´t able to crack limbs that loud. He turned around. Someone was with him in this forest. He just had to find out, who.

He took in the view while he listened to more cracking-limbs-sounds. When he heard one he quickly turned around and to his luck saw a boy with rather long white hair, a white shirt and pale blue jeans walking through the forest, a book in his hands. In these clothes the other boy looked like some kind of ghost or forest pixie.

Shinya narrowed his eyes and exerted himself to recognise him better. And then his eyes widened when he realised who the boy was.

He had often seen him on the playground of his school. The boy was always sitting alone in some corner and reading. He always had these white clothes and everyone couldn´t understand why he had white hair at the age of nine when he wasn´t even an albino. Or why he talked like an adult or why his eyes were kind of yellow or why he was just reading all the time. And despite being one year younger than Shinya this boy was in the same year as himself. He was in 5‒C while the boy was in 5‒A.

And if he remembered right the boy´s name was Ichinose Shogo.

Shinya didn´t understand why Shogo was in a forest with a book. There were better places to read. Like a hammock, a fine couch or under a big tree. In a forest you weren´t able to sit or lay down. You had to walk around. Or you were lucky and could find some stump.

Shogo didn´t seem to notice Shinya and kept on walking while reading. It was impressive how he managed this without walking against a tree or slipping over a pile of wet leaves or something like that. Shinya followed him with his gaze for a moment before he shrugged, turned around and kept on walking himself. He knew there was a reason why Shogo was always all alone on the playground and he respected it.

* * *

Fifteen minutes later he arrived at some river. It was a wide and fairly long river. Trees, bushes, grass and flowers fenced it and the few rays of light let the whole scenery seem like some kind of fairy river. It was immensely beautiful. Shinya walked alongside the river and when he found large stones in the clear water, he jumped on one and then on the next. He had to be careful not to slip and wet himself in the water or he had to stay outside as long as he would need to dry. His mother didn´t like it when he came back home wet or dirty.

Shinya continued jumping from stone to stone. He used to go to a river with his father and jump from stone to stone. To do it again calmed him and saddened him at once.

And then suddenly he smelled something strange. He stopped on a stone and sniffed again. He knew this smell. _Smoke_.

Panic started to fill his body but he managed it to fight it down. Panicking in such a moment meant immediate death, so he calmed himself and looked around. And in the distance he saw bright orange flames. Shinya didn´t hesitate, jumped back on the emerged land and began to run. The fire was pretty far away and if he ran fast, he could easily bring himself to safety.

Behind himself he could hear squirrels and other little animals flee. And while he ran for his life a thought crossed his mind: Ichinose Shogo.

Shinya stopped for a moment. He couldn´t possibly let him here! He wanted to turn down and find him when he remembered that Shogo was really clever ‒ Shogo´s classmates had told him ‒ and was definitely on a run himself, so he started to run again. He was so stupid! Now he had lost important time. And he didn´t want to know _how_ important it actually was.

Shinya ran and ran, but when he heard a cry breaking through the air he stopped and turned around. He could see white hair and white material shining in the light. For some point Shogo didn´t run and lingered around the river. Probably he wasn´t that clever at all because everyone would have notice the smell at this point. The flames came further and further and the cloud of smoke thickened. Shinya could have run and would return to his mother´s house as a living person but he didn´t run, he couldn´t. If he ran, Shogo would die. And even if he wasn´t even friends with him or didn´t even know a bit about him, he couldn´t leave him all on his own. So he ran towards Shogo. Even if this meant that Kogami Tomoyo could possibly lose her only son today.

Shinya ran and ran as fast as he could and when he arrived by Shogo, who knelt on the ground, he put a hand on the other boy´s shoulder and tried to pull him back but for some point Shogo prevented this to happen and just looked at him. Anger rose in Shinya and he tried to pull him away again, but Shogo brushed his hand off and shook his head before he looked forward.

Shinya couldn´t understand what the hell he was doing but he still looked to the same direction as Shogo. His eyes widened when he saw to his surprise a little girl with brown hair and large brown eyes which were as wet as her face. And his eyes widened even more when he realised why Shogo was kneeling: The girl´s right leg was stuck under a huge tree trunk and Shogo tried to move it vainly. After understanding the situation Shinya didn´t hesitate and helped Shogo to move the tree trunk away. The girl cried and cried. She was so little. How was it even possible that such a small girl was walking all alone in a forest? Or where her parents somewhere and searched for her? Shinya didn´t know. But now wasn´t the perfect time to ask questions. Now was the time to handle.

Together they managed to roll the tree trunk away and Shinya picked the girl up before he and Shogo shared a brief eye contact and burst into a sprint.

Shinya ran like never before in his life. The little girl took hold of the material of his jacket and buried her little wet face into his chest. With both her tiny hands she gripped his jacket as tight as she could. She was incredibly light so he didn´t have any problem to carry her and to his luck she hadn´t grabbed his hair.

They ran and ran and didn´t stop until they arrived at his mother´s house. Carefully he put the little girl down and caught for air. Shogo had followed him and was breathing as heavily as himself. The girl didn´t cry anymore but was still sobbing, waves of panic rushing through her tiny body. When Shinya could breath properly again he knelt next to the girl. They were in the garden and that his mother hadn´t greeted him meant that she wasn´t home. Shopping, properly. Even if you didn´t need to shop in today´s world she still did because she liked cooking with real ingredients.

Shinya brushed the hair out of the girl´s face and examined her. She was wearing a blue dress which had probably been pretty once but was now dirty and ugly. She had lost a shoe and her right leg looked horribly. Still she hadn´t screamed and didn´t even cry much.

"You´re a strong one, aren´t you?" Shinya said, ruffling her hair softly. She looked up and her brown eyes were wide and wet but also beautiful in the afternoon light ‒ the light of fire.

He picked her up carefully and then turned to Shogo.

"Could you please use the phone and call the fire department?"

Shogo nodded and walked inside the house after Shinya had unlocked the door. He himself carried the girl to the bathroom and washed her leg. Without all the dirt on her leg it didn´t look so bad anymore. Then he did what his father had showed him when he was a little kid.

His father had showed him a lot of things. He had been immensely intelligent and knew a lot of thing which he loved to share with his only son. Because of that Shinya knew what he had to do at such a situation.

_Thank you, Otousan_, Shinya thought while he cleaned the injury, told the girl that everything was going to be okay, complimented how brave she was, bandaged everything and gave her a lollipop after he was done. Then he picked her up again because she shouldn´t walk now and carried her to the living room where Shogo was. He looked pale as always but now his t-shirt was also a bit dirty. Only now he realised that he didn´t have his book anymore.

Shinya sat the girl down on the couch. She looked better now. With the bandaged knee and the washed legs, arms and face. He had even brushed her hair a little. Unfortunately, he didn´t have any little sisters whose dresses he could borrow so he had given her a t-shirt of his to wear. It was so big... it fit perfectly as a dress. Her own one was in the rubbish bin because he couldn´t save it.

"Did you call the fire department?" Shinya asked and Shogo nodded.

"Good" Then he turned to the little girl.

"Hi. I´m a friend. I won´t do anything to you. You know that right? I fixed your injury as good as I could and washed you. I gave you the lollipop"

The girl nodded slowly, not taking her wide eyes off him or Shogo.

"Great. I´m Kogami Shinya. And what is your name? Friends tell each other their names"

The girl hesitated and when she spoke she spoke with a really lovely child voice.

"Tsune... Tsunemori Akane"

Shinya smiled. You needed to smile at little children.

"How old are you, Akane-chan?"

She put the lollipop in her mouth and stretched out three fingers. Shinya nodded.

"I´m ten and this boy here" He pointed at Shogo. "is nine. You know those numbers, right, Akane-chan? And this nine-year-old boy here is named Ichinose Shogo"

"You know my name, Kogami-kun?" Shogo finally said something too and Shinya turned to him.

"Of course, I do"

"Because I´m always alone on the playground"

"Because you´re one of the best students in the year, Shogo-kun"

Shogo blinked at him and Shinya turned back to little Akane.

"Where do you live, Akane-chan?"

She continued licking on her lollipop and watching them. She didn´t speak until she had finished the lollipop. Akane told them where she lived and Shinya and Shogo nodded synchronously.

"I never thought that you would actually know that", Shinya confessed. "Three-year-olds usually don´t know. You´re really intelligent, aren´t you?" Again he ruffled her hair. It was fleshly washed and smelled of apples. She giggled. He turned to Shogo, after he had picked up Akane again.

"Do you want to come with me and bring Akane-chan home, Shogo-kun?"

"With pleasure", Shogo said, stepped to them and ruffled Akane´s hair too. She giggled again, stretched her little hand out and ruffled Shogo too before she did the same with Shinya. All of them burst into laughter. Then Shinya ruffled the little girl again.

"You´re really cute, you are _completely_ aware of that, right, Akane-chan?"

She didn´t answer but smiled and it was a lovely smile.

* * *

It was a long way to little Akane´s home so they decided to take turns in carrying her. Now it was Shogo´s.

"I´m sorry that you lost your book", Shinya suddenly blurred out.

Shogo raised an eyebrow. "You know that?"

"I saw you in the forest before the fire and everything. You had a book with you. But in my house you didn´t have it anymore. So I assume you lost it in the forest"

"Nicely done, Mr Holmes", Shogo replied. "But I´m afraid... is this everything you´ve noticed?"

Shinya grinned. "Of course not. I know that you like books. You read all the time. This is the first time that I´m seeing you without a book. You mostly read old books. Books from the twenty-first century or older. You like classics, detective stories, Dystopian... And sometimes you don´t read books but mangas, mostly _Doraemon_. You seem to be a big fan. Your lunch box is a _Doraemon_ lunch box. You like your silence and you don´t like it when someone disturbs your reading process. But you only like real books and no e-books. You seem to like forests, probably because people today don´t go to forests and so they are mostly silent and calm. Except today. Today we three completely failed in the attempt to calm down in the beautiful scenery of a forest because some latent criminal wanted to burn down a lonely forest because he was bored as hell. And when you´re bored as hell, you want to turn the rest of the world into hell too. And what burns better than wood? Okay, however, you´re also pretty fast"

"This is right", Shogo said, a smile in his voice. "You´re a good observer"

Shinya shrugged. "Probably"

"Do you like books too, Akane-chan?" Shogo suddenly asked the little girl he carried. She was an impressively calm person, didn´t cry because of her injury or floundered around in their arms.

She nodded.

"What do you like the most, Akane-chan?"

Akane seemed to think. "Alice", she finally said.

"_Alice in Wonderland_ by Lewis Carroll?"

Akane nodded, smiling.

"A nice one. Which character do you like the most?"

Again she thought for a while. "Cat", she said.

"Cheshire Cat?"

A nod.

At some point Shinya worked himself into the conversation. They talked the whole way. Akane seemed to laugh all the time. And Shogo and Shinya also often laughed. They took turns in carrying Akane, laughed, told themselves jokes and stories while the sun burned for the last times on this day on this half of the planet. And somewhere firemen took control of the flames and Inspectors searched with their "hunting dogs" ‒ Enforcers, special latent criminals ‒ for the arsonist. They didn´t think about any of those things. They just laughed until they arrived at Akane´s home and when they rung her distressed mother ‒ a not quite tall but beautiful woman with long black hair in a ponytail, a nice smile and a petite frame ‒ opened and hugged her daughter and then the two boys. She invited them inside and asked them how they had found Akane. Shogo and Shinya took turns to tell her the whole story and her mother seemed a bit horrified but also relieved because they were all alive after all. She thanked Shinya that he had cleaned Akane´s wound and bandaged her and washed her and even gave her one of his t-shirts. She thanked Shogo that he had found Akane in the first place and she thanked them both that they had taken her with them, even if they had risked their own lives. Then her mother told them how terrified her husband and she had been when they had found out that Akane had somehow escaped of their garden. And how her husband was now at the MWPSB to file a missing person´s report and how she should better phone him and tell him that everything´s okay.

And while Akane´s mother went to talk to her father Shinya and Shogo continued to talk with the little girl who couldn´t stop giggling. They stayed until her father arrived because he had wanted to thank them. They chatted a while and when it got late he ‒ Tsunemori Shoichi, a tall, nice man with light brown hair and a beard who could look perfectly terrifying when he needed to ‒ said to them that he would bring them home and that he wouldn´t allow a "no" as an answer. Shogo and Shinya said goodbye to Akane who was now tired and wanted to sleep but still had the strength to hug them tightly and to decide that she didn´t want them to go. "My Shinya, my Shogo", she said over and over again and refused to loosen her hold.

"Akane, dear", her mother said with a soft voice. "you can see those two nice young men tomorrow again"

The little girl let go of them and Shinya thought that never in his life the word "tomorrow" has sounded so great in his ears. And probably he had been wrong. Probably you _could_ make friends in a forest.

His mother would be happy.

* * *

**The chapter's quote is a quote by Albert Camus and fits soooo nicely.**

**Calling little Kogami Shinya by his last name, was strange, so I changed it to his first name. I hope this is not confusing.**

**Writing Shinya and Shogo as primary students and Akane as a little child was really interesting. Writing a seventeen-year-old or twenty-two-year-old Shogo was not that much nerve-wracking as writing a nine-year-old Shogo. I mean... with nine you are a little innocent child. And when you have the canon twenty-seven Shogo before your eyes while writing a child version of him...**

**A teenage version. Okay. A bit younger version. Okay. A child version. Not really okay.**

**However, I took the challenge and I hope nine-year-old Shogo is okay. And ten-year-old Shinya too. And little, little Akane.**

**Also, writing a fifteen-year-old Tsunemori Akane who was raised by Makishima Shogo for five years, was also really interesting. Like the whole writing of their relationship. Aren't they two lovely deadpan snarkers? (Or aren't they?)**

**Shogo is really a fan of Doraemon, I did not make this one up.**

**In the anime, Shogo and Choe met one and a half year before the first episode. In the novel version, they met five years prior. I like Choe's past in the novel more and also I wanted that Akane and Choe know each other. And if I had taken the anime version, they would have never met before her amnesia, so I picked the novel one. I hope this is okay.**

**Also, I have adopted every piece of Choe's novel past.**

**Akane is really from Chiba - and Shinya is really from Kanagawa. His mother's name is also really Tomoyo as Akane's father's name is Shoichi. (Also Tomoyo is single, so I think her husband died for some point... )**

**That little Akane's favourite book is "Alice in Wonderland" is, however, made up.**

**That Shogo and Senguji know each other for ten years is canon.**

**Updated timeline!**

_August 2084 - Shinya's birth_

_October 2085 - Shogo's birth_

_April 2092 - Akane's birth_

_Juni 2095 - Shinya and Shogo save Akane and they become friends_

_October 2102 - Akane loses her family; Shogo finds Akane_

_November 2102 - Akane's first lesson from Shogo to control her special ability_

_Late June 2107 - Shogo meets Choe_

_Early Juli 2107 - Akane meets Choe_

_August 2109 - Shinya finds Akane in the burning house (PF-0945)_

_December 2109 - Specimen Case_

_January 2110 - Sasayama's death, Shinya's demotion_

_November 2112 - Akane joins the MWPSB_

**I hope the timeline helps. :)**

**Momo**

_**\- currently working on various chapters for "Next" and "Criminally Asymptomatic"**_


	10. Falling Back

**Hey. I have finally overcome my laziness and uploaded something. Incredible, right?**

**Also, I have overcome my stubbornness to purposely ignore quotation laws.**

**And now: Enjoy reading! (And hopefully leaving reviews.)**

* * *

**Chapter Nine:**

**Falling Back**

* * *

_"''I'll never let go of you again,' she whispered. 'I swear it.'"_

* * *

December 2112

* * *

The room Natsumi was standing in was grey and cold.

After a long search they had finally found the culprit of the retell of the Specimen Case: A young girl, a student of Oso Academy ‒ Oryo Rikako. Nobody had expected someone like her to be the culprit. She was the prettiest. She was the most popular. She was the most talented. Why should she do such gruesome things? Why should a seventeen-year-old girl do such a thing?

In the end, everyone had been wrong. It had not been Toma Kozaburo, who had killed and disgraced his victims in the same way three years ago. It had been Oryo Rikako. Somehow she had found his workshop and his reserves and had seen her chance to send a sign. She had tried to send signs with horrible sculptures of dead people. They hadn´t been that clear like Toma´s. They lacked originality. But they had been terrible.

And this was the place where she had killed many girls and made them into sculptures. This was the place where Toma Kozaburo had done the same thing years ago. This was the workshop of two maniacs. Two psychopaths.

But this wasn´t the reason why Natsumi felt ill and worried that she could spit up.

Less than two days ago she had passed out when her headache just continued to worsen. Kogami had been terribly worried and the others too. After she had woken up in the sick room, everyone had treated her like an egg. Kagari hadn´t spoken with her in his usual manner, Masaoka had always offered her his hand by the simplest things... Karanomori and Kunizuka had tried to be always around her, so she wasn´t alone when she needed help again. Ginoza had even taken every single job from her. She wasn´t fragile. She had only had a headache and because of the immense pain, she had fainted. Even someone like Kogami would have fainted.

Natsumi didn´t like it that people treated her differently only because she had amnesia or terrible headaches because of the amnesia. After all, she was still the same Natsumi they knew. Nothing had changed. Still they looked at her as she had a terrible disease and would die soon. She wasn´t dying. She only had headaches for some point. What was wrong with headaches? Everyone had them. And only because she had fainted because of them didn´t mean that they had to treat her differently. Headaches were headaches. And she had only fainted because she had been sad because of Sasayama and tired and the headaches had been just too intense. Couldn´t they understand?

She hated pity so much.

Natsumi examined the room with the others. Nobody spoke a word. She had seen the pictures of the sculptures and the real sculptures. She had seen the photographs of the original Specimen Case and had read all reports. Sasayama had been one of the victims ‒ the last one of Toma. Kogami had found his sculpture and had been driven mad by the sight.

She wondered if this had happened to her too, would she have been there. If she had become a latent criminal and had got the measure of the System that she was able to be an Enforcer too. Or if her psycho-pass had stayed as clean as ever.

"Inspector Sekimoto."

Natsumi flinched and turned around. Kogami stood behind her, looking dark and dangerous in the dim light. For some point she blushed and she hoped that he wasn´t able to see anything.

"What´s the matter, Kogami-san?" she asked.

"You seem absent. The others are worried but don´t want to say anything."

_And you? Are you also worrying about me, Kogami-san?_

"I´m fine. No worries, please."

"You fainted because of headaches two days ago, Inspector."

She blinked at him. Suddenly she felt great annoyance. Natsumi had already told them so often that she was okay.

"I was exhausted, Kogami-san. If you had been me, you would have also fainted," she said as calmly as she was able to.

"Inspector, this isn´t the point... "

Natsumi didn´t want them to worry. "I don´t want you or anyone to worry about me. I´m twenty years old, an Inspector of the MWPSB and I´m able to do my own decisions. Can you please understand that, Kogami-san? You and the rest?"

"Inspector... ," Kogami tried but Natsumi cut him off again. She didn´t want to hear what he wanted to say. She knew that he spoke for the rest of them. She knew that they were worried. But they shouldn´t. But that wasn´t the only reason why she began to feel annoyed... She had wanted to talk about this one certain thing for so long. And now she couldn´t keep it for herself. She was tired and annoyed, her head hurt and Kogami made everything even worse.

"Shortly before our goodbye you began to call me 'Natsumi-san.' And I see no point why you´re not doing it anymore," Natsumi said, her throat dry.

"The times have changed, Inspector. I´m now an Enforcer and you´re an Inspector. You´re my superior," Kogami replied.

"Damn it, Kogami. Stop calling me 'Inspector' all the time. It annoys me. It´s okay when you call me like that sometimes but not frequently!" she shouted.

"Sekimoto... ," Kogami started and his lovely grey eyes turned serious and kind of cold.

"It´s not only because of the headaches why we´re so worried about you. After you have woken up you´re behaving differently. Aren´t you noticing it?"

Natsumi narrowed her eyes. "Behaving differently? I´m behaving completely normal, Kogami-san."

"You called me 'Kogami' without the formal address earlier. You never did this before."

"Because you´re annoying me!" she replied.

"You have never spoken with me or anyone like that, Sekimoto. Is something wrong?"

She liked Kogami but sometimes he could really be annoying. "_Nothing_ is wrong, Kogami-san. Please understand this and tell the others. You all are imagining things. I´m _perfectly_ fine. I´m acting _perfectly_ normal. Everything is _perfectly_ normal, if you can call it like that."

With those words she turned around and continued to examine the room. She knew if she looked back she would see Kogami staring after her, so she didn´t. She had no idea why they couldn´t understand that she was, in fact, okay.

Natsumi walked to some of the side rooms and examined the walls. They were completely blank. Only fine cracks ran through them. And when she raised her hand to run with her index finger over the cracks she noticed that they were shacking. Suddenly she saw her conversation with Kogami before her inner eye in fast forward. She heard the words she had said and the words he had said, she could see what he had done and what she had done. But she didn´t only see her conversation with Kogami but also the conversations she had over the last two days after she had woken up. And because of the wave of information she fell to her knees and put her hands before her eyes. Why the hell had she talked to them like that? _Why?_

She couldn´t understand it anymore.

Natsumi had never spoken to anyone like that ‒ and she would have never done it. But she did. And she didn´t know why.

And suddenly she didn´t only thought about this but also about Toma, Oryo and the Specimen Cases. Especially about Toma and the original Specimen Case.

And then the headaches exploded in her head.

The last thing she could remember was someone calling her name.

* * *

Kogami watched her moving around the room. They had found the culprit ‒ a girl named Oryo Rikako. In fact, he had. But with great help of Natsumi.

In 2109, he had already known that she had a natural talent for being an detective but she was too shy and contained. She didn´t know what she was able to do. But after he had the pleasure to work with her again, he had the feeling that she was improving.

And then she sometimes had those "mood swings."

After Natsumi had woken up after her headaches had blacked her out, she sometimes behaved strange. For a moment she was the Sekimoto Natsumi everyone knew and in the next moment she seemed like a completely different person. It was scary.

However, during her "mood swings" she got waves of confidence which had helped during the investigation. Kogami had always known that Natsumi was talented. But those "mood swings" had showed him that he had, in fact, underestimated her. She was a better detective than himself and anyone else he knew. Still he didn´t like the other Natsumi. He liked the one he knew. The one Sasayama knew.

Natsumi was examining something which looked like a gigantic aquarium. She looked absent and she had folded her hands together. As always.

Kogami walked towards her. "Inspector Sekimoto."

He saw Natsumi flinching before turning around. She looked at him with wide eyes and then blushed for a moment. He didn´t know why she did it, but he assumed that she would be embarrassed if he addressed it, so he didn´t.

"What´s the matter, Kogami-san?" she asked. Her voice was shaking.

They were standing so closely to each other, he could smell her apple shampoo.

"You seem absent. The others are worried but don´t want to say anything," Kogami told her in a calm voice.

"I´m fine. No worries, please." She hesitated with every word.

"You fainted because of headaches two days ago, Inspector."

"I was exhausted, Kogami-san. If you had been me, you would have also fainted," she said and he could see that she struggled with herself to say the words calmly.

"Inspector, this isn´t the point... "

"I don´t you or anyone to worry about me. I´m twenty years old, an Inspector of the MWPSB and I´m able to do my own decisions. Can you please understand that, Kogami-san? You and the rest?"

For a moment Kogami´s eyes widened when he heard her talk like that.

"Inspector... ," Kogami tried but Natsumi cut him off again. _Those damn "mood __swings,"_ he thought. _They´ve started again._

"Shortly before our goodbye you began to call me 'Natsumi-san.' And I see no point why you´re not doing it anymore," Natsumi said and he saw tears glittering in her eyes. She seemed smaller than ever and the dark rings under her eyes didn´t make it better that she was looking awful.

_She has found out about Sasayama days ago and now the thing with the headaches... she must be terribly sad and scared._

"The times have changed, Inspector. I´m now an Enforcer and you´re an Inspector. You´re my superior," Kogami replied. His mouth was dry.

Suddenly he saw anger rising in her face. "Damn it, Kogami. Stop calling me 'Inspector' all the time. It annoys me. It´s okay when you call me like that sometimes but not frequently!" she shouted, glaring.

"Sekimoto... ," Kogami started and this time he wouldn´t allow her to cut him off. She had problems and didn´t even realise it. She was confused and scared.

"It´s not only because of the headaches why we´re so worried about you. After you have woken up you´re behaving differently. Aren´t you noticing it?" he said carefully. He didn´t want to upset her.

"Behaving differently? I´m behaving completely normal, Kogami-san."

"You called me 'Kogami' without the formal address earlier. You never did this before."

"Because you´re annoying me!" she replied.

"You have never spoken with me or anyone like that, Sekimoto. Is something wrong?" Kogami continued to speak calmly.

"_Nothing_ is wrong, Kogami-san. Please understand this and tell the others. You all are imagining things. I´m _perfectly_ fine. I´m acting _perfectly_ normal. Everything is _perfectly_ normal, if you can call it like that," she snapped and then turned around. She walked towards some of the side rooms.

Kogami knew that she didn´t mean anything she said during those "mood swings." She was neither in puberty ‒ she was twenty after all ‒ nor she had her period. She hadn´t slept in the last days and those headaches and Sasayama´s death wrenched at her nerves.

All she needed was a cup of hot tea and a lot of sleep. And answers. She needed an answer for her headaches, he knew. They had no idea what had caused them or why she had fainted because of them. Karanomori assumed that she had remembered something but this something wasn´t able to reach her. But the day she had fainted Kogami had only talked with her about Sasayama and the original Specimen Case. What could have been the cause of her remembering something? Neither Karanomori nor Kogami or Kagari had an idea.

Kogami followed her after she went to the side room. She limped a bit, dragging along her right leg. When she had been examined after he had found her in the burning house, they had found out that she hadn´t got this injury in the house, but long ago. But of course, Natsumi couldn´t remember how she got it. Also, this had never been important to her. No matter how much her injury hurt, she was a great runner. Probably she had been accepted as a professional athlete if she hadn´t been injured.

When he entered the room he saw to his horror that Natsumi was kneeling on the floor, her hands over her eyes and crying in agony.

_Her headaches. Her headaches have come back._

Panic took control of him when he shouted her name and ran towards her, before she fell onto the hard ground.

* * *

For a moment he had thought that his heart would stop beating. He had thought the same after he hadn´t been able to find Akane on this fateful day.

For the first time in forever, Makishima Shogo´s hand shook when he pressed "start" again. He had wanted this recording because of this Enforcer ‒ Kogami Shinya. Because, he didn´t only feel a strange familiarity with the name but also, because he had been the one who figured out that it hadn´t been Toma Kozaburo but Oryo Rikako who had killed these girls. He was special ‒ his skills as detective were stunning. It would be fun to test him.

But when Choe Gu-sung, his loyal right-hand man, had given him the recording Makishima would have never guessed that it would contain something else than Kogami Shinya.

All those years... all those terrible, terrible years, he had thought that she would be dead. That the Sibyl System had found, tortured and killed her. And this had awoken a deep despise against the System. Before this fateful day he had hated it but after taking Akane away... his life had only been centered around bringing it down.

How many days, months and years he had spent, thinking about her last moments? If she had been tortured until she couldn´t stand it anymore and died in pain. Or if her death had been fast. If she had thought about him before she died. How they had found her. If she had been scared. If she had died all alone.

Imagining her injured and slowly dying on the cold ground while reaching out for him ‒ him, who would never be able to save her ‒, disgruntled him every time. Akane had just been seventeen years old ‒ damn it ‒ when they had caught and killed her. She had been a child. An innocent child who had never done anything to anyone. But she had been a danger with her ability to control her psycho-pass ‒ an ability which could mean the end of the Sibyl System ‒ and had to die. She would have never done anything against the System for as she loved it after all the pain she had felt, but the System had feared and killed her because of her ability. Because of something she hadn´t been able to help it. Because of something she had been _born_ with. How many pieces of furniture did Makishima destroy in the last years when he had been enraged due to these thoughts? Due to what the System had done to him?

But now. But now, everything was different.

Makishima pressed "play" and in-between the conversation between the lead Inspector of Division One, Ginoza Nobuchika, and Kogami Shinya and partly other Enforcers, he heard her voice. After she had gone missing he had started to miss her voice, her lovely voice, every day. He missed her teases, her advice, her kindness, her jokes, her intelligent replies. Makishima had never missed anyone like he had missed his little Akane.

And when he had heard her voice in the recording, he had recognised it immediately. He had never forgotten it. How could he?

It had surprised him and for a moment he had thought he was imagining, that he had gone insane but after hearing the recording over and over again, he didn´t think that he was insane anymore: The person who spoke in the recording was indeed Tsunemori Akane and not some Sekimoto Natsumi as it should. His Akane. The Akane he had thought was long dead.

_I have found her_, he thought and leaned back on his chair, his heart beating fast. _After all these years... I have found her._

Choe entered the room which was dark except the light coming from the monitor.

"Is something wrong?" he asked after he saw the look on Makishima´s face. Makishima turned around and pressed the recording without saying anything. Choe listened carefully and when the part came when someone said "Originality, right?" his eyes widened. His eyes never widened.

"Makishima... ," he began. "How are you feeling?"

"How should I feel, Choe?"

"I think you should feel happy... for so many years you thought that she´s dead. And now you just got to know that she´s, in fact, alive."

"But I´m not happy, Choe."

He raised an eyebrow. "Why... "

"For all those years we´ve thought she´s dead," Makishima said. "We know that she was captured by the System and we assumed that the henchmen of Sibyl had killed her. And now we´ve found out that she´s alive and working with the MWPSB as an Inspector."

"She was always a good detective but... "

"What my point is? It´s the 'why.' Why should they let her live? Why didn´t she come back to us? Why is she using a false name? The answers to the last questions are simple... she has probably forgotten about everything she was. To whom she belonged. What she could do. What her name is. She forgot everything. So she didn´t come back and because of that she needed a new name. However, the first question isn´t that simple."

Makishima´s fair eyes suddenly turned dark.

"The only reason why the System captured her, is her ability to control her psycho-pass. There can´t be another reason. But with this ability she´s a great danger to the System. The Sibyl System should be perfect, should be able to judge every person. With someone like her who can´t be judged, a crack in their perfect shell is formed. And this would mean, if anybody finds out, that the people could try to bring it down and replace it with another System, a better one, a perfect one. But those who support Sibyl don´t want to let it be replaced so they eliminate every danger which could lead to a replacement. With this logic they should have killed Akane back then. However, they didn´t. For some point they let her live and be an Inspector. The question is,_why_. Why would they do such a thing? The answer: It´s a trap. They know that she has interacted with more of her kind and want to capture them too. But as we know Akane, she didn´t tell them when she was tortured and interrogated. She remained silent whatever they did to her, so they needed another strategy to capture the others: They had to take her memories away and send her back to life in the hope that some day the people, she knew and also had this ability, would find her and they would have the chance to capture them too and kill them alongside Akane. And that she´s an Inspector now... That´s everything she´s ever wanted. That´s the thing she was always good at. Sibyl uses Akane not only as a trap but also as an Inspector, hunting down criminals, because they know that she´s perfect for the job. And they don´t want to waste such a talent when they don´t have to ‒ now. Anything else doesn´t make sense."

"So... you think that the System is after you? Not after you in the way that they know your name and all, but because they know that you´re existing?"

"Indeed. And they are using Akane to get me." Makishima turned his face back to the monitor and his face was illuminated terrifyingly.

"And I will never tolerate this. I hated Sibyl after they took her away from me. But now it´s time for war."

_I will find you. I will find you and will never let go of you again. I will save you. I promise it. I promise that I won´t stop saving you. I do, I really do, Dearie Girlie. And nothing can stop me._

* * *

**The quote is from Dianna Hardy's "The Demon Bride."**

**It was nice to write a chapter from three different perspectives. Especially, I've looked forward to finally write a current Makishima.**

**Wow. I don't have much else to say. Except: Did you see the movie trailer? If you didn't and you don't like spoilers, you shouldn't watch it as it contains A LOT OF SPOILERS. I really have no idea why they revealed such a thing before the end of Season 2.**

**Okay. Until next time!**

**Momo**

_**\- currently fixing stuff and working on chapter 14**_


	11. Like Brother and Sister

**Sorry that I didn't upload for a while. The amount of exams right now is killing me! Thursday I had to do two exams on the very same day and I will have to write an exam or test every day next week. Cheers.**

**However, here's the new chapter!**

**I know it will disappoint you in some way but... this has always been the way I wanted to portray those characters. I'm sorry.**

**But I still hope that you will enjoy this chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter Ten:**

**Like Brother and Sister**

* * *

_"The best part of life is when your friends become family."_

* * *

December 2107

* * *

She raised the cup and put it to her lips. She tilted it a bit and opened her mouth and let the warm tea flow in. It tasted differently from the tea she usually drank. The one she drank was more tart. This one was just too sweet and his taste seemed... artificial.

She put the cup down and looked over the long table to the other end. The light in the room flickered due to the fact that it came from a fire in the chimney. At the end of the table sat a man with eyes which never closed and polished his Beretta. He wore a slipover and looked like a man in his sixties. Actually, he was over hundred years old.

"Toyo," Tsunemori Akane said, blinking at him. He looked up. His eyes were the scariest part of his entire body because they never blinked, because they didn´t have too. Because he was, in fact, a cyborg. She could clearly remember the first time Makishima Shogo had taken her to this man, Senguji Toyohisa. Akane had just turned eleven and had been scared as hell when she first saw Senguji. Shogo had laughed because of her terrified face. Now, over four years after their first meeting, it still creeped her out to look into his face.

"Tsunemori-chan," Senguji said and put his Beretta away, the polish and the piece of cloth he had used. Seemed that he was done with polishing his beloved gun.

"What´s the matter?" he asked kind of annoyed. He didn´t like it when she called him "Toyo." However, he had liked her since their first meeting.

"The tea," Akane said. "It tastes awful. Artificial. Your tea usually tastes like Shogo´s tea. Did you buy the wrong brand?"

"I was kind of afraid that you would be able to recognise the difference, Tsunemori-chan. And you didn´t disappoint me." Senguji smiled his terrible smile. "In fact, it´s the kind of tea everyone in this country drinks. The one made of Hyper Oats. The one, Makishima gives you to drink and the one I always buy for you guys, is made of real tea."

"Hyper Oats tea tastes awful."

"If you hadn´t spend the last five years with Makishima, you would have still loved this tea."

"I still can´t believe that I drunk _this_ when I was little."

"Everyone says that after they have tasted real food."

Akane turned to Choe Gu-sung, Shogo´s right hand man, who was sitting opposite from her. "Did you notice the difference, Choe?"

Formerly she had called him "Choe-san," but he had told her that he didn´t like it being addressed like that, and told her to only call her "Choe." She had been kind of sad that he hadn´t offered her to call him by his first name, but simply "Choe" was okay too.

Choe flinched and then put down his cup. "No, I didn´t, Tsunemori-san."

However, he called her "Tsunemori-san," even if she had told him that he could use her first name.

She smiled. "You need to be more careful, Choe. Okay? Watching, noticing and linking... this is what you have to be able to do."

He nodded.

"Tsunemori-chan, I forgot to ask you why Makishima didn´t come," Senguji spoke up again and Akane turned her attention back to the cyborg man.

"Sho has to work, Toyo," she answered him. "You know, he´s a teacher for classical literature at a high school under a false identity."

"Right. I remember. So he sent you and his right hand all alone to me?"

Akane nodded. "Right. Sho meant that we didn´t have to go to you when he couldn´t, but I said that without us you´re quite alone, so he asked Choe to come with me. Sho doesn´t like it when I go out all alone."

"It always impresses me how a man like Makishima cares about a girl like you so much," Senguji said.

Akane shrugged. "I don´t know. He needs company. And I´m an orphan without a place I could go too. I think that´s enough for him," she lied. Shogo had taught her how to lie. When she had come to him, she hadn´t been able to lie. But because of her special ability, she had to lie. She couldn´t help it. Shogo didn´t want anyone else to know that she possessed the same ability as Shogo.

"Tsunemori-san," Choe suddenly said. "It´s time to go."

Akane nodded and stood up. "Thank you for the tea, Toyo. And for the cookies. The cookies were delicious but the tea... I think you shouldn´t buy this Hyper Oats tea anymore."

"The next time I will have the real tea, again. I promise, Tsunemori-chan. But this time the real tea has been sold out."

"No problem. Goodbye, Toyo. Until next time," she said and waved after she had picked up her coat, scarf and gloves.

"Goodbye, little Tsunemori-chan. Goodbye, Choe Gu-sung," Senguji said, shortly before Choe and Akane left his mansion.

* * *

Akane blew into the air and her blow froze. She liked it when her breath froze.

It was the beginning of December and the temperatures where under the zero point. On the streets laid snow and the garden of Shogo´s house was a field of white. She rubbed her gloved hands together. She wore a thick coat, lined boots, a woolly hat, a really, really long scarf she could put around her neck three times and gloves, Choe had made her two weeks ago. Who would have guessed that a computer genius like him could knit?

They walked through a part of the city where nobody lived, everywhere were ruins of old houses. The snow hadn´t been brought away here by drones and Akane sunk into the snow deeply.

"It´s cold, Choe," she whined.

"You should have dressed warmer then, Tsunemori-san," Choe told her and walked through the piles of snow like nothing while Akane had to struggle not to fall. If she fell into the snow, she would get all wet which would mean that she would become even more cold.

"I did, Choe!" she replied. "I even wear your lovely warm gloves." She held her hands up that he could see them. The gloves where dark blue and professionally knitted, even lined.

"I don´t mean that, Tsunemori-san," Choe said. "I mean that you are wearing a dress"

"I´m always wearing dresses and skirts, Choe. You know that. We know each other for five months."

"I just think you should start wearing trousers when you´re feeling cold. Dresses aren´t the ideal clothes for winter. And nobody wants you catch a cold."

"I´ve never caught a cold in winter because I wear dresses, Choe. I think that I´m only cold because here aren´t any... any places which dispense heat. In the city are so many lights, shops, restaurants, people, displays... you get killed by the heat in summer and in winter it´s ideal. Also the snow is always shipped away by drones in the city," Akane told him.

"I´m sorry, Tsunemori-san."

She looked up. "Why are you apologising, Choe?"

"We have to go this way because of me. Because I could get caught by the street scanners in the city. Because I´m a latent criminal."

Akane shook her head. "Choe... I also can´t walk around there or around places with scanners. I´m dead, you forgot? I was labeled dead after they couldn´t find me after the fire which killed my parents and grandparents. It´s not your fault, you understand? It´s just... I´m not used to coldness that much. Also... we could go through the ruins. Probably in the ruins it´s a bit warmer. And because the ruins are full of holes, we can walk kind of normally."

She walked ahead, dragging her bad leg behind her. She could barely move in the snow with her injured leg. Still, Choe had problems to follow her. She walked through a ruin and when she left it, she stopped and waited for Choe to catch on. Akane let him walk first and she wanted to follow him when her gaze fell to something shining in one of the ruin´s walls.

Akane narrowed her eyes and struggled to examine the shining thing. It seemed to be made of something metallic, it was round and small and...

Choe was around twenty meters away when she saw that the metallic round thing suddenly started to glow red. There was a peep. Akane´s eyes widened. She tried to turn around and walk away but she was too slow. She was just too slow to escape because of the snow. Because she had needed too much time to understand. Because of her bad leg.

And then the world was filled with pain and flames.

* * *

Makishima Shogo was always happy to go home. Especially in winter. Of course, he liked to build snowmen with little Akane, but he didn´t like the cold. Why couldn´t it snow in summer?

He hung up his coat and put down his scarf and gloves and kicked away his boots. He slipped into a pair of slippers and walked into the kitchen to make himself a hot chocolate. He only had chocolate powder because of Akane who loved hot chocolate. But she and Choe would come back any minute and Shogo just wanted to drink something warm, so he decided to make some cups of hot chocolate. He heated water and gave powder into three cups. Choe also had to drink some hot chocolate, even if he didn´t want to.

The water just boiled up when they came back.

Shogo walked back to the entrance to welcome his friends, when his eyes widened and his heart seemed to stop as he saw a completely terrified Choe. He had never seen his new companion like that. And horror filled Shogo´s body when he saw the reason why Choe looked like that: he was holding something, no someone, in his arms. Choe didn´t wear his coat, scarf and hat anymore, but the someone in his arms did. Under the hat and the scarf Shogo could recognise long brown hair. And something red. Blood. So much blood.

"I´m so sorry, Makishima," Choe said, his face pale, his voice shaking like his whole body, after he had hurried to the living room and laid the someone in his arms onto the sofa.

Without him holding her, Shogo could see her better. Wrapped in Choe´s clothes and full of blood and injuries laid an unconscious ‒ please let her only be unconscious ‒ Tsunemori Akane on Shogo´s sofa.

And for the first time in forever, he felt completely empty.

* * *

Senguji Toyohisa was his major source of supporting fund for five years. Shogo´s father had worked in the construction company of Senguji and had been his favorite and most respectable architect. And when Shogo´s mother died in April 2102, Senguji took care of him. Of course, he didn´t take him in, but he supported him with money. He always took care that Shogo had enough money to buy food and other supplies. He had even bought him the house, far, far away from Tokyo, where nobody would go and do hue checks. And when Shogo had found Akane and decided to let her live with her, Senguji approved his request after he had met little Akane. Of course, she had already lived with him for half a year at this time, but Shogo didn´t want her to meet Senguji ‒ who was kind of terrifying ‒ so early. And the cyborg had understood.

And because Senguji was a respected and terrifying man who liked Akane a lot, he had found a doctor for her who would fix her in the cellar room of Shogo´s house, which was, in fact, a little clinic, and who wouldn´t ever tell anyone that someone lived here ‒ far away from civilisation.

Shogo walked up and down. Earlier, he could have distracted himself with cleaning up the sofa, the living room and the floor from Akane´s blood, but now he had nothing to do.

He could only think of Akane´s pale face and the amount of blood ‒ oh hell, the amount of blood ‒ and the horror in Choe´s eyes when he had wanted to welcome them.

Makishima Shogo had never been nervous. Makishima Shogo never panicked. Makishima Shogo never cared for anyone.

But Makishima Shogo was nervous because of Akane. Makishima Shogo panicked because of Akane. Makishima Shogo cared for nobody else than Tsunemori Akane.

"Makishima."

At the sound of his name Shogo looked up and saw into the face of his friend and companion Choe Gu-sung. He had almost frozen to death, after he had put his clothes around Akane´s injured body, and carried her all the way back home. Also, his clothes had been full of blood. So he had showered and Shogo had brought him blankets and made him hot chocolate, so he would warm up again. Because Choe was a friend and Shogo needed distraction. But now, Choe seemed to be fine again. Of course, he had come home two hours ago.

_For almost two hours Akane is with this doctor in the cellar clinic._

"Makishima," Choe said again. "I´m terribly sorry."

"It... it wasn´t your fault," Shogo replied, his mouth and throat dry.

"I went with her to Senguji to protect her and I failed. Of course, it´s my fault."

Shogo slowly shook his head. "It isn´t... you couldn´t possibly... " He frowned when he remembered that he hadn´t asked him what had exactly happened.

"Choe... what has actually happened?"

Even if they were friends, they would call each other by their surnames. "Like Sherlock Holmes and John Watson!" Akane had screamed. Thinking of her, let him feel ill.

"When we went home from Senguji... we went through an abandoned neighborhood. She was cold and suggested to walk through the ruins, but for some point a latent criminal has installed a mini-bomb in the wall of a ruin. She stopped and examined it and I didn´t recognise that she wasn´t with me anymore. I turned around and the last thing I saw, was her trying to run with wide eyes before the bomb exploded. Probably it has been a bomb which activates when someone walks by. I´m so sorry, Makishima."

Shogo bit his lips. "No. You shouldn´t feel guilty. Nobody could have guessed that something like that could happen. It´s not your fault, Choe. Also you carried her all the way home and risked your own life. I´m thankful for that. If you hadn´t done it, she could have been already dead when you arrived."

"She will survive. She´s strong," Choe said with confidence.

He narrowed his eyes. "You barely know her, Choe. How can you be so sure?"

"Because you told me she survived for a week after her parents´s death. She has been all alone in the cold streets and she survived. Also... she is raised by you now. And you told me that she hasn´t been that confident when you found her. Tsunemori won´t die, Makishima."

Shogo looked at his friend for a long time. He was grateful for his words, but even if Akane survived, there would always be something which would disturb him all his life.

"Thanks, my friend," he said slowly and then folded his hands together. "I want you to do me a favour."

Choe raised one of his eyebrows. "What kind of favour?"

If Akane knew, what Shogo was going to ask Choe and what he was going to do, she would never approve. Still, he was confident in his decision. And when he spoke, his eyes were dark and his voice cold like ice.

"I want you to do anything you can to find this latent criminal, who has installed this bomb. Even if he´s already in a medical facility. I want you to find him or her. I want to punish him for his actions."

* * *

"The surgery was a success," the doctor told him after he had finished and went up to the living room. His face was as pale as his coat.

"Thank you," Shogo said, nodding. He had no idea what his name was. But he was sure that he would give him some present for saving his Akane. And, that, if the doctor turned against them, he would kill him immediately. Akane hated this side of him, but he was afraid that he wouldn´t have another choice if the doctor divulged that someone was living in this house, far away from Tokyo. Far away from the System.

"This little girl is a strong one. She will be fine, I promise. I will come back tomorrow. If something happens during the night, feel free to call me. And of course, you can visit her in this... cellar clinic of yours. She is currently asleep and won´t notice your visit, but I think this would cool you down. Goodbye."

After the doctor had left, Shogo went to his personal cellar clinic. Senguji had commanded his company to build this house for him and it had been Shogo´s idea to give the house its own mini-clinic. Still, he would have never guessed that it would be actually used someday.

He went to the sick rooms and saw Akane lying in one of them. After he had talked with him, Choe had gone to help the doctor. Probably he had also helped to lie her down.

Shogo walked towards her and sat down on a chair beside the bed. Her long brown hair was pressed against the white pillow and a bandage was around her head. Her arms were lying over the white blanket and were bandaged too. There were plasters on her face. And still she just looked like she was sleeping. Like a sleeping angel. Like the beautiful angel she was.

Shogo carefully took her hand and squeezed it a bit.

"Akane, it´s me. Shogo," he whispered as he was afraid that if he spoke louder, she could wake up.

"I´m sorry that I wasn´t there to protect you. But you know that we can´t just live with Senguji´s money. We need our own money."

He squeezed her hand again.

"The doctor says that you will be okay. Do you hear that? You don´t need to be afraid. The doctor said that everything will be fine. I´m here. Everything will be okay, Dearie Girlie. You don´t have to be afraid. I promise, Girlie. I promise."

He lifted her hand carefully and pressed a kiss onto the bandage. Akane didn´t move. She just continued to look beautiful in-between all the white.

"Good night, Girlie Girl."

* * *

To his luck, the latent criminal who had installed the bomb hadn´t been found by the MWPSB already. He had told him that he had installed the bomb a few months ago along with others, because he had wanted to know if someone was actually walking around those deserted places. And to his misfortune, he had been right.

Now he was sitting on a chair in one of the little, dark rooms of Makishima Shogo´s house which were sound-proof.

"I hope you´re aware of the fact that I can´t approve what you have done," Shogo said, standing in the darkness. The only source of light was a naked lamp with hung right above the man on the chair. He had no idea what his name was. He wasn´t interested in names. He was only interested in revenge.

In the pale light, Shogo could see the man shivering.

"I didn´t want to hurt anyone!" the man shouted desperately, trying to free himself from the shackles which bonded him to the chair.

"Liar," Shogo said in an icy voice. "If you had never wanted to hurt anyone, you would have never installed these bombs in the first place."

He held up his beloved "PPMD" towards the man. "Also your hue is clouded and your psycho-pass is over 210. You´re a latent criminal who´s running away from Sibyl for months. And you´re a liar. You should take responsibility for the things you have done and not deny them, scum."

Shogo took a look at his "PPMD". The man´s psycho-pass rose with every shiver.

"My bad. Your psycho-pass keeps rising and rising. And it won´t stop until I´m done with the things, I want to do to you for nearly killing my friend."

"I´m sorry for what happened to your friend!" the man screamed. Fear was in his ugly eyes. Shogo had never seen such ugly eyes.

"Liar. You´re sorry for nothing. You installed them, didn´t you? You did it to hurt people. Now you´re only apologising because you hope that I won´t kill you if you apologise. But I´m sorry. You´re wrong."

Shogo put the "PPMD" away and put out his favourite razor. It had once belonged to his father. And now it was his. He walked slowly towards the man and into the light.

"My friend is a little girl. She has lost her family. I´m all she has and she´s all I have. I have also lost my family. She is one of the only persons in this damn country who accepts me the way I am," he told the man while he swung the razor open.

"She´s fifteen years old. An innocent little girl full of joy and laughter. And you little scum tried to kill her because _you needed to test those dumb bombs_. You nearly killed a little innocent girl, you piece of shit. And you´re not even sorry."

Shogo ran the blade of the razor over the man´s arm, slowly and lightly. Still, his arm started to bleed and he cried out.

"She... she´s the only person around who is like me. She... " Shogo hesitated. What was she for him? "She... She´s my sister. My beloved little sister. And you _nearly killed her._"

"I´m... I´m sorry," whimpered the man but this enraged Shogo even more.

"You dared to try killing my sister, you bastard! And now it´s time for your punishment."

And because the room was sound-proof, nobody could hear the man´s deadly screams as Shogo slowly ripped away his skin and cut his flesh into dices.

* * *

"Shogo?"

He looked up when he heard her voice. Two months ago, she had nearly died due to a bomb of some maniac. Now she was recovering. However, she still looked horribly sometimes, which let his hatred against this man glow again.

Now she was standing in his door frame and looked at him through wide eyes. The bandage around her head had vanished like those horrible plasters, but Shogo knew that there were still bandages all around her tiny body.

"What´s the matter, Akane?" he asked and put away the book he had been reading.

"I´m sorry," she blurred out all of sudden and Shogo frowned at her.

"Why are you sorry?"

She blushed. "For making you worry. I didn´t want you to worry about me, Shogo. I´m sorry... I should have been more careful... I... "

Shogo stood up, walked towards her and put a hand on her cheek.

"You don´t need to apologise, Girlie," he said as soft as a man like he could. "It wasn´t your fault."

Tears filled her eyes. "Shogo... ," she said before she hugged him tightly and Shogo hugged her back.

"I hope you didn´t worry that badly," she sobbed into his shirt. "I don´t you to worry. About me or anything or anyone else. I want you to be all happy, Sho-chan."

Shogo ran his hand over the back of her head. "It´s okay, Dearie Girlie. It´s okay. I didn´t worry myself to death, you see? But people need to be worried sometimes. Worrying means caring. And I care for you, Girlie Girl."

Akane looked up to him. "You do?"

"Of course I do," he said and whipped away her tears. "We´re the same, aren´t we? Also... " ‒ he remembered what he had said to the man who had installed the bombs, before torturing and killing him ‒ "... you´re my sister, aren´t you? You´re my sister and I won´t ever let anyone hurt you again."

* * *

July 2095

* * *

Light flowed through the room and bathed everything with beautiful shades of yellow and orange. And in-between all these lovely shades, Kogami Tomoyo walked through the room with a smile on her face and hummed a song.

Shinya hadn´t seen his mother to be so happy after his father´s death. And seeing her humming her favourite song ‒ Ito Kanako´s _Topology_ ‒, made him smile as brightly as Tomoyo.

The reason of her happiness was the fact that after two months after their move to Chiba, her son had finally found new friends. Even if they were kind of special friends.

One was the white-haired boy of one of his parallel classes, who always read books or mangas in the break and never talked to anyone, and the other one was a little girl at three years of age. Still, she had approved his choice of friends and loved every minute, the three of them spent at her home. Even if she already knew the white-haired boy and the little girl for around a month, she still smiled happily every time the three of them were together.

Today the they had gathered in her living room to play a card game. It was a old one which Tomoyo´s father had bought in Germany ages ago and later gave it to his only daughter. Still, the kids had much fun playing the game after Shinya and Shogo, the white-haired boy, had figured out the rules and explained them to Akane, the little girl, who had giggled after she had understood the rules.

Shinya watched his mother walking towards them, when he had to pick up four cards from the pile of cards. Tomoyo looked as beautiful as always with her long and glossy dark brown hair and her wakefully and clever grey eyes, the same as his. She was almost forty years old and still had no streaks of grey in her hair.

His gaze wandered from his mother to little Akane who put a yellow three onto the last laid card. He knew that it was strange that he was friends with such a little girl, but she was really clever and incredibly cute. Shogo and he had found her in the forest and saved her from a fire, after her leg got stuck under a tree trunk. After this day the three of them had been inseparably. They even had nicknames for each other and didn´t even use their actual names anymore.

Sadness began to fill Shinya´s body when he looked at Akane. After they had saved her, he had recognised that her right leg had been injured by the tree trunk, so he had washed and bandaged the wound. But this wound had been much more serious than expected: a few days after their adventure in the forest Akane´s parents had to take her to the hospital because her leg had swollen. The doctors had to take her into surgery and for the next weeks she had to wear a cast around her leg. In the week she had to stay in the hospital, Shogo and Shinya had visited her every day after school which had always let Akane´s mother smile.

Yesterday, her cast had been removed, but even if her leg wasn´t swollen anymore, it was still kind of injured as she now dragged her leg after her. When they had picked her up at her home after school, his heart had cracked as he saw Akane walking towards them so happily, dragging her bad leg after her.

And even now, when they were sitting on the floor playing this card game, Shinya felt terribly sad that Akane would never be able to walk properly again. Even if they just knew each other for a month, Shinya thought of her and Shogo as his best friends. He had never had real friends and now he had gotten two. Because of that he even felt more terrible when he thought about Akane and her bad leg.

"Shin, everything okay?"

Her tiny voice woke him from his thoughts. He blinked at her and saw the worry in her eyes. Even Shogo had raised one eyebrow.

Shinya cleared his throat and smiled at the little girl.

"I´m fine, Aki. I really am."

Suddenly the little girl stood up and put her thin arms around his chest and pressed her cheek against his.

"Don´t be sad, Shin," said the girl, tightening her hug. Shinya´s eyes widened for a moment before he hugged her back and patted her head.

"I´m not sad, Aki. I´m fine. Really."

She pulled herself away from him and looked into his face. He never imagined that such a tiny creature could look so serious.

"You´re lying. You´re a liar, Shin."

Akane´s eyes shone in the bright light like the eyes of an adult.

"You´re being overwhelmed by a three-year-old, Shin," Shogo said, grinning.

Shinya glared at his friend. "I´m not being _overwhelmed_ by her, Sho... "

"You are," Akane said, turning his face back to her and looking all serious. In the background, Tomoyo started to laugh and later Shogo began to laugh too, followed by Akane and lastly Shinya.

"_For such a little girl she´s quite tough, don´t you think, Kogami Shinya?"_ Shinya remembered Shogo´s words he had said to him after another visit at the hospital. Back then he had simply nodded, but now Shinya knew that Akane would be a really tough, confident, eloquent, intelligent and beautiful young woman when she would grow up. And he hoped with all his heart that he would still know her then.

* * *

**The quote is just some random quote from the internet.**

**"Topology" is the second ending of "Robotics; Notes" by the way which is a really cool meccha anime.**

**I know how many of you wanted that Shogo and Akane would end up together but this kind of relationship just felt wrong for this story. I intended a different story and such a relationship just didn't fit. I mean... Shogo has raised her and everything. I played with the thought of letting them end up together but it just felt strange due to the past they share. I'm sorry.**

**The new timeline:**

_August 2084 - Shinya's birth_

_October 2085 - Shogo's birth_

_April 2092 - Akane's birth_

_Juni 2095 - Shinya and Shogo save Akane and they become friends_

_July 2095 - Akane is released from hospital, she can't walk properly anymore_

_October 2102 - Akane loses her family; Shogo finds Akane_

_November 2102 - Akane's first lesson from Shogo to control her special ability_

_Late June 2107 - Shogo meets Choe_

_Early Juli 2107 - Akane meets Choe_

_December 2107 - The ruin incident_

_August 2109 - Shinya finds Akane in the burning house (PF-0945)_

_December 2109 - Specimen Case_

_January 2110 - Sasayama's death, Shinya's demotion_

_November 2112 - Akane joins the MWPSB_

**That's it right now.**

**Probably I will upload the next chapter this month or... I could make a little christmas special. Please tell me in the reviews if you want a christmas special - if you do not want one, I will just keep uploading the regular stuff. (Even if those exams are killing me, I would still have two to three days to write the special, so it would be fine to me.)**

**Also: Only one episode to go with S2! I'm really excited. I screamed internally when... yes... this person... yes... you know. I don't want to spoil anyone so... I hope you - the people who have seen episode 10 - which scene I mean. :)**

**Okay. I'm out.**

**Momo**

_**\- currently working on too much different stuff**_


	12. Extra: Three Times Christmas - Part 1

**Uh.**

**Here's the promised Christmas special. (It's a little trilogy. One story for today, one for the first Christmas day and one for the second.)**

**And I _really_ hope the special isn't as bad as I'm afraid it is.**

**Okay. That was all.**

**A nice Christmas to everyone! And to those who - like me - don't celebrate it!**

**And enjoy reading!**

* * *

**Three Times Christmas:**

**Part 1**

* * *

December 2095

* * *

Snow kept falling down while they walked around the streets. It was really beautiful how snow changed the earth. Especially little Tsunemori Akane seemed to be very fond of the snow. She watched the delicate snowflakes falling onto the ground with wide eyes and giggled every time when some snowflakes landed on her nose.

She was so adorable it almost hurt.

Akane walked between Kogami Shinya and Ichinose Shogo, the pompon of her woolly hat whipping from side to side with every step. Shinya was dragging a toboggan after him as they had wanted to go sledging. Suddenly Akane stopped in front of a shop window and pressed her little nose against the glass.

"Shin! Sho! Look!" she shouted, pointing excited at the window.

Shogo and Shinya exchanged a look before they looked through the window too. Their eyes widened when they saw a huge locomotive driving through the most beautiful, artificial winter wonderland they had ever seen.

"A choo choo train!" Akane yelled and jumped up and down.

Shinya couldn´t help it and laughed when he saw this. Even Shogo ‒ who almost vanished with his white hair and clothing in-between all the snow ‒ smiled.

"Can we take a look?" she asked with wide, glittering eyes.

Shinya braced himself against her cuteness and shook his head.

"We can´t go in with the toboggan. I´m sorry."

Akane looked sad for a moment and then grabbed Shogo´s hand.

"Sho, have you ever seen a locomotive?"

He nodded. "Yes, I have. I even had a locomotive on my own."

She blinked. "'Had'? What has happened to your locomotive?"

Shogo smiled at her sadly. "I lost it when I was little. I think I have forgotten it while on a bus or something like that. In today´s world it´s pretty hard to find such things as old steam locomotives, so I didn´t get a new one."

Akane looked up at him with a caring gaze and held his hand tighter.

"Nobody should lose his locomotive," she said seriously. Shinya was always impressed how she had managed to speak properly in the course of some months ‒ probably because of the ever so eloquent Shogo ‒ and how she had learned to speak in such a serious and honest way.

Shogo patted her head. "I think you´re right, Aki," he said softly, a smile in his words. He dragged her away from the window.

"Come, Aki. We wanted to use Shin´s very old toboggan, didn´t we? So we should go now before it gets dark. You know, your mother doesn´t like it when you come home too late. Even if you´re with us."

"Okay, Sho," she said and suddenly she was the one dragging Shogo. And even if she couldn´t run with her bad leg she laughed while dragging him.

"My toboggan isn´t old!" Shinya shouted after them before he broke into a little sprint to catch up with them.

* * *

"Again! Again!" Akane yelled in excitement. They had already descended to the end of the little mound more than twenty-six times and Akane still wanted more. She had never been sledging before and this was all new and exciting for her but after so many times it just went ridiculous. Also, Shinya and Shogo were quite exhausted. They sat down the toboggan and breathed heavily while Akane jumped around, full of energy. It was impressive how much energy little children had.

"Sho! Shin!" she said and shook them. "Please... one more time! After this time I will have had enough and we can go home! I promise!"

Shinya looked at her. "I´m sorry, Aki. Leave us old fellas alone. We just can´t do it anymore."

Akane shook her head. "You two aren´t old."

"Of course we are. We are two old fellas with broken backs and canes."

"You are only seven and eight years older than me!"

"You will understand when you´re ten."

She made a grimace. "Old men Sho and Shin."

Suddenly Shogo stood up and walked towards Akane, picking her up. "You´re sinking halfway into the snow, Aki. Be careful. When the snow melts, it will wet your clothes and because the snow is cold, you will get cold too. And then you will be ill for Christmas."

Akane looked up at Shogo.

"Do you like Christmas, Sho?"

He looked back at her with blinking eyes. "I never celebrated Christmas."

The little girl stared at him as this was the most shocking thing in the world.

"You don´t celebrate Christmas? Why?"

"My mother doesn´t like Christmas. She thinks it´s as useless as Easter and birthdays."

Shogo´s parents were divorced, he had told Shinya once. His father lived far away in Morioka and didn´t even seem to bother to visit his only son and his mother was a quite strange woman, but Shogo had also told Shinya that his mother could also be a nice and friendly woman.

"I think it´s unfair," Akane said in her serious voice. "Christmas, Eastern and birthdays are such lovely feasts. Even if you´re not Christian, you have your own lovely feasts to celebrate, so everyone has times in the year when they can be happy and come together. And almost everyone celebrates birthdays. And we _did_ celebrate your birthday two months ago and you were happy and laughed all the time. So we can do the same with Christmas."

Shogo patted Akane´s head.

"And I´m still grateful that you´ve done such a thing for me. But you don´t have to do it again, Aki. It´s fine for me not to celebrate Christmas. I just don´t know it differently."

She shook her head vividly. "I would _love_ to do such a thing, Sho. You know that. You´re my friend. You and Shin are my best friends in the world and I love you both. I would do everything for you to make you happy."

Shinya could only smile at her words. She was just three years old but so immensely loving and such a sweetheart. He stood up and took her from Shogo´s arms and kissed her cheek.

"Could you please stop being so sweet, Aki? It gives me diabetes."

She giggled and Shogo patted her head again. "Okay, okay, Little One. You can do whatever you want."

She smiled her incredibly bright smile.

* * *

Akane was incredibly stubborn and spirited. Shinya and Shogo had found this out when she had asked them when their respective birthdays were and then insisted to make them a party. Shinya had just shrugged, but to Shogo who had never had a birthday party Akane´s idea had been something very special. And now she did it again with trying to organise him a little party ‒ the best little Christmas party a three-year-old could do.

Yes, this little girl impressed them with every day.

This time she had invited both of them to her family´s Christmas celebration. She had told them that it would be nice to celebrate Christmas with more people than with just her parents and her grandmother as her other relatives couldn´t come this year. Also, Shinya´s mother, Kogami Tomoyo, was also sincerely invited to come and Shinya liked the thought of spending Christmas with other people as he feared that spending it with only his mother would bring back their grief of his father´s loss. And of course, the more or less strange Ichinose Mayu was also invited to come.

In addition, Akane had also suggested that every one of their little group would buy a present for the other two, so every one would have at least two Christmas presents. Then they had brought her home and now Shinya and Shogo were completely uninspired what they could buy Akane for Christmas.

Shogo and Shinya walked around the shopping streets for _ages_ now after they had decided to help each other with buying Akane a gift. Nobody of them had a little sister or something like that and they had no idea what little girls liked.

It was enough to drive you up the wall.

They had thought about buying her some _Alice in Wonderland_ merchandise but the book was quite old and finding merchandise for it was quite hard. Also, Akane already owned a copy of the book and its sequel _Through the Looking Glass_ and a cuddly Cheshire Cat.

After walking around the street for another decades they decided to go home and get a present for her on their own again as they just couldn´t find something they both agreed on: Shogo wanted to give her a book, but Shinya thought this wasn´t the ideal present for such a little girl. They argued over every cuddly toy and every pen or pillow or cloth or... whatever. Of course, they were best friends but buying presents together just didn´t work.

* * *

"Shin!" Akane yelled when her mother opened the door for him and his mother. She ran towards Tomoyo and Shinya as fast as she could and then hugged Shinya tightly.

"You did come!"

She pressed her tiny face against his chest and he laughed and patted her head. She was wearing a red and green dress and a bow clip in her hair today and looked adorable in it. Akane let him go and her face beamed with joy.

"Najika, your daughter looks gorgeous again," Tomoyo said to Akane´s mother. "It´s such a pity that I can´t let Shinya wear dresses."

Shinya scowled at his mother who laughed and ruffled his hair lovingly. "Just kidding, Love."

"I want to show you something!" Akane said and grabbed Shinya´s head, leading him to the living room.

"They are just too sweet," he heard his mother say before he and Akane entered the living room. Shinya had always liked the Tsunemori household´s friendly-looking and comfortable living room but seeing it now with a _gigantic_ Christmas tree being the center of everything literally took away the oxygen from of his lungs. Their living room during the rest of the year had already been beautiful but this... this was just _stunning_.

"Nice, right?" she asked, a smile all over her face.

Shinya just could nod lightheaded.

"A-chan. Which of your two friends is this young man?" he heard the voice of an elderly woman and turned around. The owner of the voice sat in a huge armchair and looked with her wide, warm brown eyes, greying hair and nice smile like a _way_ older version of Akane.

"This is Kogami Shinya, Obachan!" Akane told her grandmother excited.

"Kogami Shinya, ya? I´m A-chan´s grandmother and Shoichi´s mother ‒ Tsunemori Aoi. It´s a pleasure to meet you," Akane´s granny said, giving him a friendly smile.

"It´s also a pleasure to meet _you_, Tsunemori-san," he replied politely.

"A-chan has told many stories about you and the other boy ‒ Ichinose Shogo. It´s so nice that she has found some friends, even if they are so much older than her."

"I assume."

Before anybody of them could speak further, the door´s bell rung again and Akane limped towards the entrance hall, Shinya following her.

Akane´s mother had already opened the door, revealing Shogo who shone again all in white. Snowflakes glittered in his hair.

"Sho!" Akane yelled and hugged him the same way she had hugged Shinya. Shogo hugged her back and then let go of her to remove his jacket and boots.

"So you did come too," Shinya said after greeting his friend.

Shogo nodded and then turned to Akane. "I hope it´s okay that Mother couldn´t come."

She nodded patiently. "It´s okay, Sho." She took his big hand into her tiny one. "And now, come. It´s time for your very first Christmas feast."

* * *

It wasn´t surprising that after all their talking, eating, laughing, running around and playing games Akane had fallen fast asleep onto the sofa. She was three years old after all.

Tomoyo had chatted with Shoichi, Najika and Aoi all the time and Shinya loved the fact that she had found people she could talk with and was able to distract herself from her grief over her husband´s death. While the adults had talked and talked, the children had gone out and built a million snowmen before going in again and playing card games, hide and seek and parlour games before they had torn apart their presents and yelled out in joy every time. Tomoyo had brought Shinya´s and her presents along with her gifts to Akane and her family and of course Shogo, so Shinya was able to tear as many presents apart as Akane ‒ and Shogo.

Shogo´s eyes had widened when he had found out that there weren´t only presents from Akane and Shinya for him, but also from Tomoyo and Akane´s parents as they knew about Shogo´s background and liked him very much. Probably this day had made him even happier than his birthday two months ago.

They had spent the whole day together and Shinya remembered how he had thought that this first Christmas without his father would be a dreadful one ‒ and he thought that he had never been as wrong as back then. This Christmas feast would always be one of his favourite ones and he knew that his father would have enjoyed it too.

And when it was time to go home Shinya and Shogo ‒ Tomoyo had decided to drive home ‒ looked one last time after Akane who was still sleeping on the sofa, hugging the pink jellyfish cuddly toy Shogo had got her. She looked even more adorable than usual when she slept. Shinya smiled a faint smile when he saw that the simple necklace with its circular and wooden pendant and silver-coloured chain rested on her chest. He had found this simple necklace in a little shop which sold hand-made and very simple things ‒ something you couldn´t find easily nowadays. And because Shinya had thought the necklace was looking nice but a bit boring he had added some indentations by himself.

And while Shogo and Shinya and Tomoyo said goodbye to Akane´s family and drove back home Shinya wished that he could spend more Christmas feasts with his friends.

* * *

**Tomorrow: Christmas with Shogo, Akane, Choe and Senguji!**


	13. Extra: Three Times Christmas - Part 2

**Part 2! Puh.**

**Another little Christmas story I hope isn't as bad as I think.**

* * *

**Three Times Christmas:**

**Part 2**

* * *

December 2107

* * *

Judging the look of Choe Gu-sung´s face, Makishima Shogo knew that something was making his friend feel uneasy. He didn´t know what but he knew that there was definitely something wrong, so he decided to find out what was going on.

For three days Shogo followed him and around and tried to poke information out of him with discrete questions. During these three days he hadn´t figured out anything but on the fourth day Choe broke down.

"I can´t stand this anymore!" he cried out after he had sunk down on his knees. "I can´t stand it anymore! And I should have _known_ where she got this silly habit!"

While his Korean friend was resting on his knees, holding his head and yelling stuff Shogo frowned at him, wondering what was wrong.

"What´s the matter, Choe?" he enquired.

"You! And Tsunemori-san!"

Shogo´s frown deepened. Two weeks ago, Tsunemori Akane, his little sister-in-mind, best friend and protégé, had become the victim of a bomb attack. She still laid in one of the sick rooms of Shogo´s very own cellar clinic due to her severe injuries. This let him wonder if Choe had gone crazy.

"What has Akane done to you, Choe? She can´t even sit up by herself right now."

"You _know_ that this would _never_ hinder her to do something like this, Makishima," Choe replied.

"Please tell me... What is the fifteen-year-old with the severe injuries who currently rests in a sick room in the cellar doing to you, Choe Gu-sung?"

"Don´t be sarcastic, Makishima," his friend said and Shogo raised one eyebrow as he had never spoken to him like that. Probably he had really gone crazy.

"_She´s watching me all the time_. She studies me. It´s even _worse_ than during the first months I knew her."

"She is injured and lays in her bed all the day, Choe. How the hell could she watch you then?"

"She has installed cameras through the whole house and watches me through them."

"She´s _fifteen_, Choe. Also, I´ve thought _you´re_ the super hacker here."

"I have destroyed most of her tiny cameras but I can still _feel_ that there are more. I just have to find and destroy them. Also, I think that she has the transmitter with her all the time. And these cameras are really interesting... when I try to examine them after pulling them out of some flower or something like that, _they destroy themselves_."

"She´s _damn fifteen years old_, Choe. You´re _thirty-seven_."

"Don´t even bother me with 'She´s just a fifteen-year-old child, Choe.' You know, she isn´t. She´s _your_ protégé after all."

Shogo sighed. "You´re being ridiculous, Choe. How should she have got such things in the first place?"

"Aren´t you giving her pocket money?"

"Don´t you really thing that she uses her pocket money to buy such stuff? She´s a girl. She buys stuff like cuddly toys, make-up and dresses and whatever girls buy."

"Did you ever see her buying make-up?"

"No, but they were only _examples_. Also, you seem to keep forgetting that I only give her _pocket money_. There´s no way that she could afford such things with only pocket money... " And then Shogo´s eyes widened in realisation.

"Senguji... ," he said.

"Did he give her money in the past?" Choe wanted to know.

"I have told Senguji not to give her any money as we want to do everything we can by ourselves, however... ," Shogo started. "However, he gives her money every... " He stopped and then grinned which resulted in Choe not only looking ridiculous but also highly confused.

"I now know what´s going on here," Shogo said, his grin nearly cutting his head into two. "Seems like little Akane wants to know what she can get you for Christmas."

For six minutes and thirty-nine seconds Choe stared at Shogo in disbelief.

"She tortured me for a week _for a Christmas present_?"

Shogo nodded. "She´s a Christmas girlie."

"But why couldn´t she just _ask_ me what I like? Like every normal person would do? Or did she spend too much time with you, Makishima?"

"What´s wrong with you, Choe? Usually you don´t speak like that."

"I couldn´t sleep for _one whole week_, Makishima."

"It´s quite amusing that you can´t stand it being watched it when _you´re_ the one who watches people all the time via cameras."

"I think this comes exactly from that. Because I´m usually not the person being watched but the watcher myself."

Choe stood up and brushed away the dirt from his trousers with his hand.

"And what´s with Tsunemori-san and Christmas?"

Shogo shrugged casually.

"She _loves_ Christmas. She has a lot of nice Christmas memories from the time when her family was still alive but she never tells me them. She only says 'This reminds me of the Christmas feast when... ' and then cuts herself off because she can´t stand it to speak of her past. Everyone except her died on this fateful day five years ago after all. However, my mother has never celebrated Christmas which upsets Akane all the time. A few days before our first Christmas together she has asked what we would do during the feast and I have replied 'Nothing' as I never celebrated this feast before which resulted her being eager to make the days of Christmas as nice as she can."

"But you´ve told me that Tsunemori-san met Senguji in May 2103."

"And because of that our first Christmas has consisted of self-made decoration and drawings and tiny gifts as presents and the tiniest tree you could imagine. It was still nice ‒ and not only because it was my very first Christmas feast," Shogo told him and smiled at the memory. They had known each other for only some months and Akane had already been cute as hell and had done such a thing all on her own.

"Due to the fact that she can´t leave her bed right now I think she communicates with Senguji via the untraceable mobile phone I gave her. Nothing could get in Tsunemori Akane´s way to arrange a Christmas feast," he continued.

"What do you usually do on Christmas?" Choe asked while he followed Shogo who was now heading to the cellar clinic.

"Except in Christmas 2102 Akane and I always go to Senguji´s mansion for Christmas because she loves his mansion and chimney."

Suddenly a dark thought crossed his mind and Shogo stopped walking and turned towards his friend.

"_Please_ tell me you like Christmas."

"Well... ," Choe started. "I didn´t celebrate it since my childhood. Also, I have never seen any sense in Christmas and... "

"Whatever you think of Christmas is irrelevant," Shogo interrupted him. "Akane _will_ get you a present and _will_ invite you to our feast. No matter what. You can say everything you want, you can´t argue with her during the Christmas season. It´s absolutely _impossible_. Senguji and I tried it in 2103 and failed horribly. We never thought that we could ever be overwhelmed by a eleven-year-old girl. It was frustrating. Also, if you want do sabotage Akane´s arrangements somehow or don´t do what she wants you to do, you won´t have a good time. In 2104 Senguji polished his Beretta for _hours_ and didn´t join us in some parlour game. The following years his Beretta always mysteriously vanishes on December 21."

He could see that Choe had gone pale and could hear how he swallowed.

"I think it would have been better if you hadn´t been the one who had rescued her back then."

Shogo ignored his mad friend and continued to go to the cellar clinic. When he entered the sick room Akane craned her head and smiled a faint smile at them. Her whole body was bandaged and it even hurt her to move her head or arm. Choe or Shogo always had to feed her and sit her up and down. Bathing was even more complicated. Fortunately, Senguji had found them a _female_ nurse they could call to come and who wouldn´t tell anyone that three strange persons lived in a place in the middle of nowhere. And if she turned sides, Shogo would simply kill her.

"Sho, Choe," Akane struggled to say and Shogo´s heart threatened to break apart like every time he saw her as helplessly as now.

He sat down the chair which he had place next to her bed a long time ago and took one of her bandaged hands. He felt the warmth of her body through the bandages and again he was more than just relieved that she had survived.

"How are you, Dearie?" Shogo asked and pressed her hand carefully.

"Fine," she answered and smiled to confirm her statement.

He pressed her hand again. "You know you shouldn´t overwork right now, Akane. It´s not good for your health. You´re still recovering."

Akane blinked at him.

"We know that you´re organising a Christmas party again, Akane," Shogo said straightaway. There was no point in talking around everything.

"You know that it´s totally okay for me that you´re doing this but... _please_ not this year. You´re injured and need rest. I can´t allow you to organise anything. But that wouldn´t mean that we´re not celebrating Christmas this year. We _do_ as I know how important this is for you. But you won´t be the one organising it this time. I will do it this time and you will rest, okay? I can handle it and I will try to do it the same way you would do it. Deal, Girlie?"

Akane looked at him for a long time before sighing. Shogo could see how much she had to struggle with herself to give up this piece of her heart and it made him hate even more the dead man who was responsible for everything.

"Okay, Sho."

* * *

"I hope you all know why I have ordered you to come here."

Shogo stood in front of Senguji and Choe, his hands folded behind his straight back, and looked at them seriously.

"On the third December Tsunemori Akane, my friend and protégé, became the victim of a bombing attack of some now deceased latent criminal. And like you all know, Akane was always the one organising our Christmas feasts. Due to the incident earlier this month Akane can´t leave her bed and has to rest, so this year it´s up to us to arrange a feast. I know what you all are thinking right now: why don´t we just skip Christmas this year when Akane´s injured? Even if she can´t leave her bed, doesn´t mean that she wouldn´t love celebrating Christmas. And because we all like her we should fulfill her this wish.

"In order to organise a Christmas party we need decoration. I think there should be some decoration from the past years somewhere. We also need something to eat so we have to cook. Also, we have to find the most beautiful Christmas tree we´ve ever seen. And of course, everyone of us has to get one present for the other three. Also, Choe, you don´t have to find Senguji anything. He´s rich and buys everything himself. Also he´s a cyborg. Only Akane presents him something but she always tinkers something for him."

Shogo turned to Senguji.

"Sorry, but it seems as Akane won´t be able to give you anything this year, Senguji."

Senguji waved aside. "It´s not really important."

Shogo nodded. "Okay. Did I have forgotten something? Decoration, food, tree, presents... oh, yes games and snowmen. Akane likes playing games. However, in her current condition she can´t play such things like hide and seek and tag so we have to find games she can play. Also, even if she can´t build snowmen and other snow things by herself _we_ have to do it. The doctor said that we have to keep her happy in order to accelerate her recovery. And it would make her happy if we conjure a winter wonderland for her. I´m one hundred per cent certain of it. Also we have to find a way to bring her from my house to this mansion without killing her. Of course, we could do the celebration in my house but except in 2102 we have celebrated every Christmas in Senguji´s mansion and for Akane´s sake we should keep this tradition no matter what. Okay, that´s everything. Let´s get started."

* * *

Organising a party was _way_ more difficult than they had imagined.

Shogo had been the one to find accurate decoration but it took him an eternity to find decoration which wasn´t too kitschy. After a lot of tries Choe had managed to cook something eatable and with the help of Senguji´s robotic dogs they had built a very nice winter wonderland for Akane. Also they had found a really nicely shaped and big spruce. The part with the presents was the most difficult thing for Choe as he couldn´t walk around the town freely and had to buy them with the help of Senguji and Shogo. Also they had found nice parlour, card and guessing games.

But on the first day of Christmas all their effort was destroyed.

Shogo had gone picking up Akane ‒ they got a nice stretcher and a doctor´s permission for the transport ‒ and had almost been at his house when Choe called him and confessed that during his absence the living and dining rooms had caught fire because Kafka and Lovecraft had run against some candles and knocked them over. Also the fire brigade´s fire trucks had destroyed the winter wonderland and now they had nothing.

While Senguji and Choe drove to Shogo´s home, he finally arrived by himself and had no clue what to do. Everything was lost and it was already Christmas. What could he do? He ran his hands through his hair and walked up and down. What could he do? What could he do? For Akane Christmas was really important and now she wouldn´t be able to have a nice feast anymore. This _couldn´t_ be good for her recovery.

Shogo almost lost all his hope when he suddenly remembered something. With new confidence he rushed to the attic and when he found what he had searched for a bright smile graced his face.

Looked like everything wasn´t as broken as it had seemed.

* * *

At the time Choe and Senguji arrived, the whole house was already fully decorated.

"Isn´t this... ?" Choe started when he pointed at the decoration.

"Yes, this is the self-made decoration Akane has made when she was ten," Shogo cut him off and grinned. He was so happy that he had remembered them in the end. And that he had found a really tiny spruce behind his house.

"I´ve almost forgotten that I have kept it back then."

"They are really nice for being made by a ten-year-old."

"She has learned how to make paper decoration from her grandmother. This is one of the few things Akane told me as it pains her to speak about her family much."

"And where is Tsunemori-chan?" Senguji wanted to know.

"Still in the cellar clinic. I think she´s currently freaking out because I´m not coming. Choe, come, we have to pick up a little girl."

* * *

Fifteen minutes later Akane who was now sitting in a wheelchair was about to burst into tears after she saw the decoration.

"You kept them, Sho?" she asked, looking up at him, tears in her eyes.

He took her hand. "I just couldn´t throw them away. I mean... they are part of my very first Christmas."

Now Akane really started to cry.

* * *

They´d spent the entire day chatting and laughing. Shogo had driven Akane around the ground floor and had taken care that she didn´t overwork herself with chatting and laughing. And Akane had only been worried when Shogo´s Christmas headaches had kicked in.

They ‒ sans Senguji of course ‒ had drunken hot chocolate and eaten Christmas cookies in front of Shogo´s little chimney. Every present had been destroyed in the fire at the mansion ‒ except Akane´s. The things she had got for her friends via Senguji had laid under her sick bed all the time. She had got Shogo a hardcover copy of _Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?_ which she had found in a little store one week before the bomb attack. For Choe she had had a little robotic dog and she had even tinkered Senguji something before the bomb attack. This had had even heated his robotic heart. Akane had smiled her beautiful smile all the time.

Now she was sleeping on her wheelchair. Senguji was already gone and Choe was off playing with his new robotic friend.

Shogo kneeled next to Akane´s wheelchair and took one of her thickly bandaged hands, raising it up to his mouth, placing a kiss onto it.

"Merry Christmas, Dearie Girlie. And... and thank you that you´re here."

* * *

**I will now go and finish Part 3 with Natsumi and...**

**(A Merry Christmas to everyone again.)**


	14. Extra: Three Times Christmas - Part 3

**Puh. Here's the final part!**

**It's also the shortest... (I'm terribly sorry!) but that doesn't mean it's less important!**

**Enjoy reading!**

* * *

**Three Times Christmas:**

**Part 3**

* * *

December 2109

* * *

Her hair moved in the cold air of Christmas Eve, the carbon dioxide she blew out crystallised in the air and her eyes reflected the various coloured light of the MWPSB Tower while she stood before it. For around a month this place had been her home. Now she was going to school and lived in a fine apartment in the city and didn´t help hunting down an arsonist and other criminals anymore while living under the same roof as latent criminals.

Sometimes she really missed the good old times.

Sekimoto Natsumi was now standing in front of the tower for thirty minutes and was glad that Hanako and Taro ‒ the mascots of the MWPSB ‒ hadn´t already asked her what she was doing in front of the tower.

After another five minutes of shivering and playing with the thought of going home Natsumi finally braced herself and went in. Her legs shook even more inside than while she had stood outside.

You can do it, Natsumi. Some months ago you walked in and out those doors every day.

But back then she had been allowed to do something like that. Hopefully, nobody would punish her of entering the MWPSB Tower without permission. Good for her, she knew the less crowed ways to go to her destination.

Natsumi walked through the corridors and headed to Division One´s office. I´m almost there. Right before the office´s door she stopped, closed her eyes and waited until her heart stopped running a marathon while slowly counting from twenty backwards. She hadn´t seen Kogami Shinya, Sasayama Mitsuru, Kunizuka Yayoi, Masaoka Tomomi, Ginoza Nobuchika and Karanomori Shion in months and feared that they didn´t want to see her. That she should have accepted her new friends´s invitation to celebrate Christmas with them.

When she was ready, she opened her eyes again and stepped through the transparent door, hoping that nobody had seen her silhouette through it.

And she had been right. Nobody had seen her... because nobody was inside the office.

With sadness running through her body Natsumi looked at the familiar office. Of course ‒ it´s Christmas. She just wanted to return home as it was hopeless to wait here, when the door behind her slid open again and a familiar voice said:

"Oh, it´s you."

Natsumi turned around and took a step back to let Ginoza Nobuchika in. She watched him with big eyes while he went to his desk and sat down on his chair. When he finally sat he looked at her, his green eyes sharp behind the glasses.

"You don´t have permission to be here and you know that pretty well, Sekimoto Natsumi."

Natsumi smiled at the detective shyly. "I´m terribly sorry for that, Ginoza-san."

"I have never thought to see you ever again. So ‒ why are you here?"

"Because it´s Christmas."

He pushed up his glasses. "Such a foolish reason. Christmas? That´s everything?"

She nodded firmly. "Exactly. Also, I´m wondering why you´re not celebrating Christmas with your father."

Ginoza glared at her. "You know why, Sekimoto."

Natsumi moved more into the room and took a brief look through the office. Everything looked as like remembered. Bottles next to Masaoka´s desk, music magazines laid on Kunizuka´s desk, cigarettes all over Sasayama´s desk, Ginoza´s incredibly tidy desk and Kogami´s slightly messy one. So they hadn´t got some new colleagues over the last months.

"Even if you´re not on good terms with your father for what has happened to him, you shouldn´t be alone on Christmas if you don´t have to. Also you have a living grandmother with whom you can celebrate. You should be everywhere but here, Ginoza-san."

"You don´t understand this, Sekimoto. I´m an Inspector. My work just doesn´t freeze on Christmas. Criminals run around especially on Christmas."

She looked at him warmly. "I know. But you´re here all alone. You just can´t hunt down criminals all by yourself."

"Kogami and Sasayama are also on duty," Ginoza replied grumpily.

"Really? And where are they? Invisible?"

"This is not the right place for terrible jokes, Sekimoto. They are bringing a runaway student from Oso Academy back home."

Suddenly something rung in Natsumi´s head and she frowned which caused Ginoza to look at her worryingly.

"Is anything wrong, Sekimoto?" he wanted to know.

She shook her head. "Nothing," she answered and smiled at him.

"You look pale, you should sit down," Ginoza mumbled and Natsumi continued to smile at him while she let herself fall onto Kogami´s chair as his desk was the one next to Ginoza´s.

She looked at him with sympathetic eyes. "I know when it´s finishing time, Ginoza-san. And when Sasayama-san and Kogami-san come back it will be far beyond finishing time. And when you´re not waiting for them ‒ I know you aren´t ‒ why are you here?"

Ginoza avoided her gaze and when she rolled with her chair over to him and laid her hand onto his he flinched but looked up and looked right into her serious eyes.

"You can tell me. We´re kind of friends, aren´t we?"

He blinked at her for a long time and then finally sighed.

"What do you want, Sekimoto?"

"I want you to get your father and drive to your grandmother´s home for celebrating Christmas. Even if you can´t look into his face right now because he had to leave you and your mother when you were just a little kid, he´s still part of the family you have left. It´s Christmas. Your father and your grandmother are the ones you can always go to. The place you can always return to. And even if it´s for only three days, you should know that every time you want to go to this place and such a place exists you should immediately go there without thinking. Nobody should be sad when it can be avoided."

And when he now looked into her face he saw the sadness in her facial features and eyes and suddenly he felt incredibly terrible and his heart sunk in his chest.

"I´m sorry, Sekimoto."

"Why are you apologising, Ginoza-san?" she asked and blinked at him.

"Because you don´t have such a place."

To his surprise she laughed for a moment. "I have one. I just need to find it. Only because I´ve forgotten about my special place doesn´t mean that it has vanished. I´m certain that it is still existing, that it´s somewhere out there ‒ I just need to find it."

"But what will you do until you´ll find it?"

"There´s always a place to return to. You can´t lose your special place. Because there will always be such a place. And even if I have forgotten about mine, I still have one."

Ginoza raised an eyebrow at her. "This office?"

Again, she laughed but, of course, he knew that she wasn´t laughing at him. "Not solely."

Natsumi stood up and patted his hand. "I have to go. It was really nice to see you again, Ginoza-san. Could you please greet the others for me? And ‒ Merry Christmas."

But before she could leave the office, Ginoza raised his voice again.

"Th... thank... thank you and... and Merry Christmas, Sekimoto."

She turned around and gave him the most beautiful of all smiles.

And then she was gone.

* * *

When she stepped out of the tower snow was falling from the sky upon the earth and painted everything white. And when some delicate snowflakes fell down on her nose she couldn´t help herself and giggled. And she did it all the way back home.

* * *

Sekimoto Natsumi was gone for forty-nine minutes when Kogami Shinya and Sasayama Mitsuru entered the office. Sasayama´s gaze immediately fell upon the huge bag full of cookies.

"Woah. Gino-sensei, did you make these cookies?"

Ginoza glared at him. "You will never guess who has baked them."

"Yayoi? I´ve never thought that... "

"Kunizuka didn´t bake them," Ginoza interrupted.

"Tottsan?" Kogami suggested.

"Wrong. One more time."

"Shion?" his old friend tried one more time and failed one more time.

Ginoza shook his head. "All wrong. It was Sekimoto."

Synchronously, Sasayama and Kogami turned at him which let Ginoza smile in his mind.

"Natsumi-san was here?" Kogami asked in disbelief.

"Tsu was here?" Sasayama asked at the same time.

Ginoza nodded. "She came to say hello to us for Christmas. However, only I was here. We chatted a while and then she left. Also, she greets you."

"I can´t believe that she was here and we´ve missed her, Kogami," Sasayama cried out and let himself fall onto his chair slouchy. Kogami himself also looked pretty grumpy because of this.

"The cookies are great by the way," Ginoza said out of the blue.

Kogami frowned at him. "Since when do you like sweet things, Gino?"

He simply shrugged. "They aren´t so sweet. You should eat some. You shouldn´t only like them because they´re made by Sekimoto." Ginoza stood up from his chair, picking up his coat and scarf. "Also, this girl could also be a ninja. She has left the bag with the cookies here without I noticed."

"Are you going somewhere?" Kogami asked when Ginoza was done with putting on his coat and scarf.

"I´m going to get Masaoka and take him to my granny´s house." With those words he was gone, leaving the other two men stunned.

"I think Tsu has spread her Tsu magic again," Sasayama grinned and then craned his head towards Kogami.

"We just have to visit her soon. I miss her. I really miss her. Even my hair misses her. Also, we have to apologise at her for not being here to see her."

"We will go seeing her after finishing our current case," Kogami said a bit absently as he had lost himself into one of Natsumi´s cookies while he wished that their current case would be solved soon as he missed her as much as Sasayama. Probably even a bit more.

* * *

"You really have beautiful and healthy hair. Are you sure that you want to cut it, Sekimoto-san?"

Natsumi nodded firmly while looking at herself in the mirror. "I´m absolutely sure."

And while the hairdresser began her work Natsumi followed everyone of her movements and felt long streaks of her hair falling down her shoulders and revealing a brand new person ‒ whoever she had been in her past life was now gone, everything what was left now was Sekimoto Natsumi.

* * *

**Okay. That was everything. Happy Holidays and a happy Sylvester/New Year!**

**"Chapter 11 - Clouded Days" will come in January then! See you again in January!**

**Momo**

_**\- finally taking a break**_


	15. Clouded Days

**Hi - it's me again.**

**Christmas is long over and we're already fourteen days into the new year and I already had a day when my motivation went far beyond the zero point (waiting is such a cruel thing). But now, my motivation is shining and sparkling and I have just finished the last draft of the fourteenth chapter (Which also means that I'm halfway through the story! Yey!) and I'm about to write the next one while writing too many other things.**

**Oh, this will be a good year for writing.**

**(Also: Thanks to all the nice people who have left reviews in the last year. Your nice words and friendly corrections help writing this story. Thank you, BrazeRancor, Person, RainBowUniCorn, Jocelynlove13, Seta, psychoshima, lawliness, lovleydragonfly, Aira Aura, sabribri1977, FlawedPerception and Guest! I hope you continue to read this story and that I won't disappoint you with it!)**

**(Oh, _hopefully_ I haven't missed one... )**

**And now: Enjoy the very first chapter of the new year!**

* * *

**Chapter Eleven:**

**Clouded Days**

* * *

_"I lose part of myself that day and I don't want to lose even more."_

* * *

December 2112

* * *

"_But people need to be worried sometimes. Worrying means caring."_

She had thought about those sentences when she had woken up in a sick room, after her headaches had let her faint again. And she thought about them when she drove to the Enforcer´s residence at the MWPSB Tower.

Natsumi had no idea who had said those words to her, but she knew that anybody had ‒ long before she had forgotten everything. Probably it had been her father or her mother. Or one of her grandparents, an uncle, an aunt. Or a sibling. Did she even has any siblings?

"_But people need to be worried sometimes. Worrying means caring."_

Natsumi arrived at the Enforcer´s residence and Kogami already waited for her. He wore his usual suit-and-tie-combination. When he entered the car, he asked her straightaway how she was going.

"I didn´t mean to snap at you," she blurted out, hastily covering her mouth with her hands. Sometimes, things just blurted out of her. He looked at her in amusement.

"It´s okay, Inspector. I know that you didn´t mean it. You were confused and those headaches made everything worse. It´s okay. Really."

Natsumi looked at him for a moment and then looked away. She knew she was blushing and she didn´t want him to know too.

They drove off and Kogami told her the coordinates of the place they were going to go. He hadn´t told her where they were going exactly, saying it would be a surprise. Natsumi turned on the autopilot and leaned back, closing her eyes.

"Are you okay, Inspector?" he asked again and she could hear the worry in his words. _"Worrying means caring."_ She sat up and turned her face to the window as she had started to blush again, because of those silly words she remembered from her past. Someone like Kogami couldn´t possibly care about someone like her ‒ right?

"I´m fine, Kogami-san," she lied. She knew, she shouldn´t lie. But she didn´t want him to ask any further.

* * *

The rest of the drive they remained silent. After a little over half a hour, they arrived at a house in the middle of a forest. It was a pretty nice house, right next to a lovely river with astonishingly clear water. They got off the car and Kogami led her towards the house. He rung and almost immediately the door was opened. The opener was a man in his forties with brown hair, glasses, a beard and a scarf wrapped around his neck. In his eyes shone intelligence and the way he dressed reminded Natsumi of the way teachers or professors dressed. The man also spread a calm aura, the aura of someone who was experienced at listening to others patiently. This would explain why Kogami knew this man in the first place. They didn´t look alike after all, so they couldn´t possibly be related. They couldn´t have gone to the same school either because of their immense age gap, and so this and the fact that Sasayama had told her back then that his only friends had always been Ginoza and himself, would exclude the possibility that they could be old friends. So she should be on the right path with her speculation. That this man lived so far away, however, irritated her a little. Why should anyone live so far away? There was no reason, except...

"You were Kogami-san´s teacher and you´re a latent criminal," Natsumi said, folding her hands together. It was good to do some "scanning" because it always calmed her down a bit, but, unfortunately, her hands always started to shake when she did it.

The man smiled. "I thought she´s here for a lesson, Kogami."

Kogami laughed. Natsumi had heard him laugh the last time when Sasayama had nearly drawn himself in a fountain, when he had hurried after a little boy who had told him that his face would look ugly. To his defense, the fountain had been pretty deep.

"She is. Even if she´s talented, I think she still needs some lesson. She never had a proper lesson, Saiga-sensei."

The man ‒ Saiga ‒ raised an eyebrow. "No lesson? Not even from you?"

"Not exactly... "

Natsumi had frowned at the man´s name as she had already heard it before. When she finally remembered, her eyes widened.

"You´re Saiga Joji. The professor who lectured ongoing Inspectors and had to quit because his student´s psycho-passes started to rise just because of listening to you."

Saiga Joji looked at her for a moment. "Are you afraid that your psycho-pass could also rise after our little lesson?"

She squeezed her hands together. "No," she said quietly and with a bitter chuckle. "My psycho-pass never rises, no matter what happens."

* * *

Some minuter later Natsumi sat next to Kogami on a large sofa and opposite from Saiga. Between the two large sofas was a little table with a plate of cookies, cups and a can of tea. Saiga poured tea for all three of them into cups. Natsumi lifted her cup and took a sip. Warmth filled her mouth and then her body, along with the great taste of...

"Authentic tea," she said with a deep sigh and she thought for a moment that she could dissolve due to the tea´s deliciousness.

"This little lady here impresses me with every second. Only a few people in today´s Japan know, how real tea tastes like," Saiga said, seemingly amused.

"I prefer authentic tea over this terrible Hyper Oats tea. Sadly, I have no idea where I can get it."

Saiga nodded patiently. "I know what you mean. But I can tell you where I get my tea when we´re finished, if you like."

Natsumi smiled politely. "Great thanks."

Then she felt Saiga´s gaze on her and she knew that it was his turn to examine her and interpret her actions and appearance. She shuddered a bit because of this thought, although she was excited. What would he say? What would he tell her about herself?

"I see," he said slowly after a while.

"An only child. Your parents have a deep love for you. Or should I say 'had'? They are dead for a few years, I assume. Also, you seem to be very fond of your grandmother. Or 'seemed.' She´s dead too. You seem to be an athletic person, although you drag your right leg after you. Probably some injury, which you got as a child, didn´t heal properly. However... you can´t swim. And you don´t like it, when someone speaks about your inability to swim. You just flinched. You´re a shy person and very contained ‒ mostly. Because, earlier, you were quite eager to tell us your speculations. You read a lot and don´t go out a lot. Because of that you´re quite pale. You also drink coffee when you´re nervous. You live in Tokyo, but you´re not from Tokyo. But I don´t know where you´re from." Saiga pushed his glasses up and thought about it for a while. "No... I know. You´re from Chiba. As a child, you liked to play in the snow and in forests. You were top of your class. If you weren´t, you wouldn´t be an Inspector. You didn´t sleep well last night. Not due to nightmares, but due to you thinking too much and long about a certain thing. And even if you seem calm, you´re, in fact, restless in your mind as you always think about anything. You didn´t have much friends as a child, but now you have. Your current friends tease you and even if you like them, you wish they wouldn´t tease you that much. Also, you have lost quite a lot in your young years. And, even if you are under people for years again, you still didn´t become accustomed to humans. You´re used to be around few people, not many. Which could mean that you have been isolated from the world for some years. For example, you didn´t go to school before you went to high school. Or you didn´t in the last few years before starting high school. And you don´t trust anyone immediately."

Natsumi had choked on her tea and was now coughing badly. She let the cup fall down and, to her surprise, it didn´t break but the carpet was now full of tea. Kogami knocked on her back softly.

"How... ," she said when she could finally breathe again. "How... " She closed her eyes for a moment and then took a deep breath, before opening her eyes again and beginning to talk. Natsumi folded her hands together.

"I´m sorry. But I have amnesia. I don´t know, where I was born or if my parents and my grandparents are dead or alive. Or if I had friends as a child. Or what I did as a child. Or how I injured my leg. Or if I attended middle school or not. Or if I lived all isolated by myself. I have no idea and I don´t know, why you should know all those these things if I do not."

Saiga pushed his glasses up again. "I think I should add that you, in fact, have a quite stubborn side which you almost perfectly hide, but sometimes your stubbornness slips out. Also, sometimes, you instinctively reach out for something on your chest ‒ but there isn´t anything. Probably there has been something once, which comforted you, but now it is gone. And I also think that I should add that you clutch your hands together, when you don´t want anyone to see that they´re shaking."

Natsumi narrowed her eyes.

"Don´t feel attacked, Sekimoto-san," Saiga said, calmly pouring her a new cup of tea.

She looked at him for a few seconds before turning to Kogami. "You didn´t bring me here for lessons solely, right? You brought me here, so he would be able to tell you something about me. Because you were curious. Because you knew, that he would be the only one who could give you any information about me." Her whole body shook and she clutched her hands very tightly together. "You... you just wanted to have more information about me, because of your research with Kagari-kun! And don´t tell me, that I´m wrong. I´m not dumb. Even if I haven´t been myself in the last days because of those headaches, doesn´t mean that I didn´t notice, Kagari-kun and you whispering around! I know that you´re researching about me!" Natsumi´s whole face burned. She had no idea where those words came from, she only knew that she was alright with the fact, that she let them out freely.

"Why do you want to know all these things about me? It´s my decision if I want to know, who I was before my amnesia or not! And mine if I want to tell you anything about it! Only mine! I... I... I don´t like it when someone does research about me." She had whispered the last sentence and was now looking down her laps. Now they were shaking too.

"Sekimoto," she heard Kogami saying softly. He put a hand on her shoulder.

"Is everything okay?"

Natsumi shook her head and she wanted nothing more than to go home and throw herself onto her bed in this moment.

* * *

"Contradicting and overlapping memories," Saiga said casually. "For some point in her life, she hated it when someone did research about her. This part of her has stayed, although she has no idea anymore why she hates it. Also, this instinctively hate of her overlaps and contradicts with her current memories and her current personality. On the one hand, she wants to know something about herself, on the other, she doesn´t want anyone doing the work for her as her instinct says that she doesn´t like it when someone tries to find something out about her. It´s normal,"

Kogami nodded and turned back to Natsumi. "_'It´s a strange feeling to know that you don´t exist at all' _"

She flinched at these words and looked up at him with wide eyes.

"You said that to me and Sasayama years ago."

"You... you didn´t forget?" she asked silently. She was blushing faintly and probably didn´t even notice it by herself.

"How could I? I´m sorry, but I remembered your words and thought that Kagari´s idea to do some research would help you, so I agreed. We didn´t know that this would upset you. I´m sorry, Inspector."

Natsumi stared at him and for some reason he liked her expression.

"I... I... I... ," she stuttered. "I... I... I have no idea why but I just don´t like it when someone tries to find something out about me behind my back," she said slowly. "Probably someone did in my past and something happened. I... "

"'... don´t want you both to continue'. I know and I understand."

To his surprise she shook her head. "I didn´t want to say this. I... I wanted to say that... that I´m sorry that I´m overreacting so much. My head is full of contradictions, clouded memories, aches, overlaps, gaps... I just don´t know anymore what I should think or say or how I should behave. I´m sorry. And now... Now that you told me about it... I think it would be okay if you continued your research with Kagari." She smiled a little. "And thank you, Kogami-san."

He frowned. "Why are you thanking me?"

"For doing this." Her shy smile widened a little. And her blush deepened a bit. "And for worrying."

* * *

After Natsumi had calmed down, Saiga could have finally started with his lesson. Now it was late, the sun already went down, and they were on their way back to the Enforcer´s residence. Natsumi yawned when the arrived and said goodbye to him when he got out of the car. But before she could drive away into the darkness, he remembered what he had forgotten to say earlier.

"Oh, right," Kogami said, resulting in her frowning.

"Yes?" She blinked at him sleepily. After everything what had happened today, it wasn´t surprising that she was tired now.

"This costume suits you."

Natsumi´s eyes widened at his words, she stared at him and she even blushed a bit. She didn´t look tired anymore, but wide awake.

"Eh... eh... eh... eh... eh... eh... ," she stuttered, loss at words. He had sampled her stuttering but never to such levels.

"Eh... eh... eh... "

It was like Kagari had been right and Natsumi was, in fact, a cyborg whose speaking area was now damaged.

"Eh... eh... eh... eh... eh... "

"Good night, Inspector," Kogami said, closing the door behind him and entering the Enforcer´s residence. But before he had closed the door he was completely sure that he heard Natsumi saying "Thank... thank... thank you." A grin graced his face the whole way to his Enforcer-flat.

* * *

"How are you feeling?"

"Stupid," Natsumi answered. She laid onto Kogami´s couch and tried to calm herself down completely.

Kagari glared at her. "You want us to help you, right? So, don´t say it´s stupid."

"You want to try some _hypnosis-technique_ on me, Kagari-kun. I think it´s _pretty_ stupid."

He sighed. "I have no idea... but if your new way of talking is, in fact, the way you talked before your amnesia, I can understand why someone put away your memories and dumped you in a burning house."

"I´m sorry," she mumbled and folded her hands together.

"Are they shaking again?" Kogami asked when he entered the room. He had gone some minutes ago to find an efficient pen, so he could write down everything Natsumi would say. For some reason all his pens were empty or broken.

Natsumi shook her head, hesitated and then nodded slowly. Of course. For her it was still new that somebody knew about her shaking hands. He found out and told Kagari with her allowance just yesterday after all.

"I don´t know, why. Probably because of Kagari-kun´s words."

Kogami nodded and turned to Kagari. "Never say something like this again. Also... her losing her memories was an accident, as we know it."

"I know, I know, Mister Overprotective Wolf. I just wanted to back my annoyance up. I like Natsumi-chan but every time she acts like that it just feels... strange."

"I´m sorry," she mumbled again.

"No, no. You don´t have to," Kagari said, turning to her. "I mean... Sarcastic and Snarky Natsumi is nice and everything, but I´m used to Nervous-all-the-time and Cutie Pie Natsumi. Not that you aren´t cute when you´re snarky... "

"Shut up, Kagari," Kogami told him and Kagari silenced.

"Are you ready, Inspector?" he then asked Natsumi who nodded. Kagari put out a pendulum and started to swing it back and forth before Natsumi´s eyes.

"Look at the pendulum... look at it... Don´t look at the handsome guy in this room or at Kogami... Just look at the swinging pendulum... Keep your eyes on it... Follow it with your eyes... Yes... Concentrate on the pendulum and on my voice... Listen to my words... Listen to my voice... Your eyelids will grow heavier and heavier... They will grow heavier and heavier... I will count to three and when I´m done, you won´t be able to hold your eyes open anymore and close them... You will fall into a deep, deep sleep... And during this sleep you will go to the deepest part of your mind... You will search through this part and tell us what you can find... And when I flip with my fingers you will wake up again... Concentrate on my voice and on the pendulum... Do as I said... I will now start counting... One... Two... Three... "

And when Kagari was done with counting Natsumi immediately closed her eyes. He shared a gaze with Kogami and then returned to the sleeping beauty.

"Can you hear the voice of the Pendulum Master?" he asked softly.

For a moment there was silence. And then...

"I can hear you clearly, Kagari-kun."

Kagari scowled and Kogami grinned. It seemed to work, but not as Kagari wanted.

"Go to the deepest part of your mind, search through everything you can find, Natsumi-chan," Kagari continued.

They waited for a few minutes and then he raised his voice again.

"What can you see, Natsumi-chan?"

"I see... I see the Angel Boy... "

Kogami frowned. "What angel boy?"

"The one I dream of since my goodbye to you, Kogami-san."

"What else can you see, Natsumi-chan?" Kagari asked.

"I see... flames." Her eyes under the eyelids moved fast. "They want to swallow me up. I can feel their heat. But I can´t move. I want to, but I can´t. I´m laying on the ground. I´m half-conscious. I want to wake up. I fail. I try and try, but I... The flames... They´re growing and growing! They will kill me... They will kill me... "

"They won´t kill you, Natsumi-chan."

Sleeping Natsumi seemed to ignore him.

"Panic is filling me... I will die... I will... " She cut off.

"Kogami-san... ," she suddenly said in a shaking and soft voice. "Kogami-san... what are you doing in my dreams?"

The start of the PF-0945 case. The burning house. Natsumi relived the time she was imprisoned between the flames again.

"Go on, Sekimoto," Kogami said, his voice steady. "Search further."

They waited again, but before anyone of them could say something again, Natsumi spoke.

"'The tea. It tastes awful. Artificially.'"

Kogami smirked. She had said something like that in Saiga´s house. It shouldn´t surprise him that she also had in her past.

"Can you find more?" he asked.

"'I don´t you to worry. About me or anything or anyone else. I want you to be all happy,'" she suddenly blurted out and she made a sound like she was sobbing.

"'Can you tell me something about your past? You know everything about me but I know nothing about you.'"

Kogami frowned. Had she really said something like that in her past? To whom had she spoken to? He wanted to ask her but Natsumi continued to talk.

"'Probably you´re lonely. I... I... You see... you live here all on you´re own. And this house is quite far away from everyone.'

"'You´re lying. You´re a liar.'

"'You lie. You promised me to never lie to me. And now you are lying.'

"'I´m... I´m not scared of you...'

"'It feels like I´m dying... I´m dying on my birthday...'

"'I´m always wearing dresses and skirts.'

"'I also can´t walk around there or around places with scanners.'

"'I don´t think that we should befriend him.'

"'It´s not your fault, you understand? It´s just... I´m not used to coldness that much. Also... we could go through the ruins. Probably in the ruins it´s a bit warmer. And because the ruins are full of holes, we can walk kind of normally.'

"'Once a spy, always a spy.'"

Some of the sentences Natsumi blurted out in the last minutes were kind of interesting. Some of them... weren´t. Like the one about the tea. Or the clothes. However, Kogami still wrote them down.

"A name," Kagari said. "Can you find anything were you tell your name to someone, Natsumi-chan? Not 'Sekimoto Natsumi,' but your real name."

Natsumi was silent for a while before she rose her voice again.

"'You asked me what my name was two months ago and almost every day after our meeting. It´s... '"

But before she could continue and reveal to everyone and to herself her name, her real name, the name her parents had given her, she suddenly cut off and began to scream. Natsumi clutched the material of Kogami´s sofa which he used as a bed as he didn´t have one. She screamed and screamed and wouldn´t stop. She twisted and twisted. Tears floated down her cheeks.

"'I knew you were trouble... I knew. I warned him, but he didn´t trust me. Because you were alike and he wanted to gather as much people who are like him around him as he could.'"

There was an interruption.

"'Please save me!'" Natsumi continued to scream without any clear transition. "'You promised me that you would never let anybody do anything to me... Are you here? Help! Please help me! I´m too weak! He wants to kill me! Can you hear me? Please help me, Sh... '"

"KAGARI," Kogami shouted. He couldn´t just lean back and see Natsumi suffering. "STOP THIS INSANITY RIGHT NOW."

Kagari hurried to flip with his fingers and then Natsumi stopped screaming and opened her eyes again. Her hand had wandered onto her chest and her fingers clutched something which wasn´t existing. Her cheeks were wet of tears and she looked horrible when she sat up and looked at them. Her tiny shoulders and her whole body were shaking.

"Natsumi-chan... ," Kagari started, a sad tone in his voice, before he sat next to her and hugged her. "I didn´t know that something like this could ever happen. I´m so sorry... "

She hugged him back and shivers ran through her petite body. And when Kogami saw the two of them like that, he felt as sad as never.

* * *

_She is alive. She is alive. My sister is alive._

Makishima still couldn´t believe it. Akane was alive. She was working as an Inspector for the MWPSB. For Sibyl. Because Sibyl didn´t want to waste her abilities, but also wanted to lure him out.

He hated Sibyl so much.

Makishima had got Choe to find him everything about this "Sekimoto Natsumi." He had read all the records carefully and now knew everything: she was found in August 2109 in a burning house by an Inspector and was bought to the MWPSB for interrogation. However, she couldn´t remember anything. And because they had to call her something, they gave her the name "Sekimoto Natsumi." The CID´s Division One investigated to find the arsonist and Natsumi helped them because she was thankful for saving her and because she was a perfect and absolutely nice little girl everybody just needed to love. However, after they had found the arsonist, Natsumi was given an apartment and sent away. Later she joined the MWPSB as an Inspector after becoming the best of the country.

Those bastards.

They shortchanged Akane to help them finding a criminal and she had done it because she was lovely. And because she had no clue what the System had done to her.

And then this bastard Kogami Shinya...

Makishima ground his teeth. He _knew_ that he knew this name from somewhere. But he couldn´t properly remember it until yesterday: It was the name of the man who had taken his Akane away.

In August 2109, Tsunemori Akane was arrested by an Inspector of Division One who had got the order right from Sibyl itself to arrest a little girl.

And this Inspector had been Kogami Shinya.

Probably the System hadn´t even told him _why_ he should arrest someone with a perfectly clear psycho-pass for everyone´s sake, but he had done it because he was a puppet of the System like everyone else was.

Such a bastard.

And for what he had done, he would suffer. Makishima had wanted to test him. And now he knew how he could test him the best while he could also punish him.

* * *

August 2109

* * *

"_When will you come back, Sho?"_

_Akane sat on the kitchen table and her legs hung over the edge. She was so tiny, she couldn´t even reach the ground, even if she sat down on the corner._

_Pale light of the rising sun flushed through the room and let Akane in her white dress look paler as usual._

"_I have classes until five o´clock. But the girls will probably try to hold me there until six or seven. As always, Akane."_

_She squinched her face. "I don´t like it when this happens."_

"_If you want to spend time with me, you just could take your hologram-suit on and come with me"_

"_You know that I don´t like doing this after... you know." Akane´s face darkened._

_He sighed. "He is like us, Akane. Isn´t it great to know that more of us are existing?"_

"_You´re telling me this every time we speak about him, Sho," she said, rolling her eyes. "And... and he is _not_ like us, Shogo. He... " She silenced and looked onto her lap. Her voice was thin and shaking when she raised it again. "Insanity is glowing in his eyes, Shogo."_

_Again, Shogo sighed. "Akane... " He had talked about this topic with her so many times. It was tiring._

_She looked up, a glare in her eyes. "You have to believe me, Shogo! You _have_ to! You always say that I have to believe you, because we´re brother and sister. But you never believe _me_. No matter what I say. No matter how I say it. You´re not listening to me. You´re not believing me. Shogo, please... Some day he will do something horrible to you or to Choe or to me. I know that. He´s _insane_, Shogo."_

_He shook his head. "Of course, I believe you, Akane. I love you. You are my sister. But what you say... you have no proof, Akane. You can´t accuse someone without evidence, you know that. And please excuse me now, I have to go to work."_

_Shogo turned around and wanted to go as Akane jumped of the table. It shook._

"_You say that he´s like us," she said, her voice shaking. Usually her voice was more steady. "But he isn´t, Sho. He isn´t like us. Even if we share the same ability, we´re not alike. Not in the slightest. You´re so incredibly nice and soft. Even if you sometimes have times when you´re darker. But you only have them because of your terrible past. And in the last few years you improved. You fought your dark side. You´re not evil, Shogo. You fought the evilness the System has let grown in you. But he... he is pure evilness. He´s insane. If you look into his eyes _once_, you already know that something is fundamentally wrong with him. You aren´t evil. The System tried to make you evil, but failed. He, however, was _born_ evil. I never though someone could ever be born evil... before I met him. We know him for five months now and he´s already changing you, can´t you see it? You´re being swallowed up by madness again, Shogo. You´re stronger than this, Choe knows that, I know that, you know that. Even _Choe_ has doubts about him. Shogo... we´re your friends, your family and you turn against us. Don´t you see how cold you turned after meeting and befriending him?"_

_Shogo sighed again. "Akane. We have spoken about this so many times now. It´s annoying. He is as normal as you are, as we are. And I´m _pretty_ sure that you made the thing with Choe up. And now I _really_ have to go." He turned again and left his house, but before the door closed after him, he could hear Akane running after him. Her tiny feet leaving invisible footprints on the floor._

"_You´re not only not believing me because he has brainwashed you," she shouted after him. "but because you want as much people like us around you, because you think they are the only people who can understand you, the only people who can love you. But Choe is your friend. And I would also gladly have become your friend even without my ability."_

_He could hear how tears filled her eyes. "I just want him to do anything to you, Shogo. I love you. You´re my brother. You´re my mentor and my best friend in the world. He´s corrupting you and one day he will destroy you and Choe and me. I know you don´t want that. Shogo, I just want your best... "_

_That was the last straw. Shogo turned around hastily and looked at Akane furiously. "I can´t believe it, Akane... ", he said harshly. "After all I have done for you... you think of me in such a way? I have enough of your hormone-ridden thoughts. You´re being stupid. You´re such a stupid girl. You can´t understand anything. I want you to go to your room and not to come out until tomorrow, do you understand? And when you don´t stop with this ridiculousness I have no other choice than to bring you back to the gutter I´ve found you! Sometimes I really wish I have never found you!"_

_Then he walked out of the door and closed the door so hard, the entire house shook for a moment. Shogo turned and put out a little device with two buttons on it and pressed the red one. Right after he had pressed it, every door, every window and every crack in his house closed and Akane was completely locked up in it. Some years ago, he had asked Choe to install such a thing for safety reasons. Shogo would have never imagined that he would use it to imprison Akane someday. With anger burning in his face and guilt in his heart, he put it back into his pocket. He turned and walked away, not looking back again once._

* * *

**The quote is from Miranda Kenneallys "Things I Can't Forget."**

**Such a funny and messed up chapter to write. But yes, it was fun.**

**And the next chapter was funny to write too.**

**Oh, the next chapter.**

**The Fox Hunt.**

**The awaited confrontation.**

**(Which I hope isn't horrible.)**

**And you have to wait until chapter 15 is done.**

**Such a mess.**

**However - I hope you all had a nice start into the New Year (better than mine) and let's hope that the Movie comes out soon! (Because I'm dying even if I read every piece of spoiler I could find. (I'm from the rare kind of people who don't mind spoilers.))**

**Oh - who wants some chapter quote spoil?**

_"The past is never where you think you left it."** (chapter 13) - **__"Sometimes, remembering hurts too much."** (chapter 14) - **__"Maybe, no matter how much you loved them, they could slip through your fingers like water, and there was nothing you could do about it." **(chapter 15)**_

**Interpret away.**

**(_Probably_ \- just _probably_ \- updates will be a bit slower as the chapters get longer (sometimes) and I have so much unfinished chapters everywhere... so have fun with the quotes. :) )**

**Until next time then!**

**Momo**

_**\- currently writing too much**_


	16. Hunt to the Past

**I'm back!**

**I wanted to upload this way earlier but the last months were quite difficult for me. There was a time I just couldn't write, even if I wanted to, and then I had to prepare myself for a big presentation. (It's part of a series of exams which are combined the "middle grade graduation." It's a silly little thingie you have to do in Germany to be able to get into high school level. Urgh.) And I'm _horrible_ at presentations (I'm always nervous and can't say anything when too many people stare at me.), so the preparation suck all my energy out of me and I wasn't able to do anything fun. But everything went fine and now I'm FINALLY FREE and able to write and write until my bad arm strikes again. But then hopefully, I will have completed a bunch of chapters and just need to upload them one by one.**

**Even if I wanted to upload this chapter after finishing chapter 14, I decided that, because of the great progress chapter 14 makes (it's almost done!), and because I let you wait far too long, I will upload it today. And hopefully this won't bother anyone. (Except anyone likes waiting.)**

**I hope you all can enjoy this chapter as it's quite the heavy one and I'm still not sure what I should think about it myself.**

**And still I hope you all will have a nice time reading this.**

**Enjoy.**

* * *

**Chapter Twelve:**

**Hunt to the Past**

* * *

_"The past is never where you think you left it."_

* * *

December 2112

* * *

She sat on his couch, her legs tucked and her arms around them. Her head laid on her knees. Watching her while shudders ran through her body and her face was marked with pain and insecurity, made him feel pity towards her.

"I´m sorry," Kagari said honestly and put a blanket around Natsumi´s shaking shoulders. "It worked... you can´t deny it. But I had no idea that your past could be so... _horrible_." He silenced.

She looked up at him. It was obvious that she was struggling with herself to stay calm, so he wouldn´t have to worry. "It wasn´t your fault, Kagari-kun," she said in her lovely soft voice. Even if she did a great job dubbing it, Kogami could hear that her voice was actually shaking. "Nobody knew what would happen."

Kagari bit his lips. "Natsumi-chan... "

"It´s okay, Kagari-kun. _Really_." To strengthen her words she tried a smile. It was a sad and pained smile.

"You´ve heard her, Kagari," Kogami said, his mouth dry, his chest heavy. "And she´s right. You did your best and now we know a lot of things. We have no idea in what kind of order we have to put the sentences you´ve blurted out, Sekimoto, but that we have them makes our work easier." He thumped the piece of paper. "We can work with them. And with enough thinking we could carve out important aspects for the search of your real identity. So... even if things didn´t turn out well, they didn´t turn out bad either."

Kagari blinked at him. "Ko-chan... You flattering bastard. I had no idea... "

"I said this to _Sekimoto_, so she wouldn´t have to worry."

His face greyed. "Oh, yes. Of course. Still... still... it´s strange to hear such words out of your mouth. Spend too many time with Natsumi-chan, nya?"

Kogami sighed and decided to ignore him. Also, Natsumi had started to blush again. At least, her face wasn´t chalk white anymore.

"So... " He sat onto a chair and looked directly into her eyes. He didn´t want to ask her the question he would ask her now, but he knew that he would have no other choice.

"Can you remember anything you´ve said?"

She slowly shook her head. "I can only remember what I´ve felt while I´ve said them. Not what I actually said, only fragments."

He nodded. "Okay. Let us begin. I think we can skip the thing with the tea and the flames. The tea isn´t that much relevant, I think. And we already know why flames are appearing in your memories. So... Here´s the first part: 'I don´t you to worry. About me or anything or anyone else. I want you to be all happy.' What can you tell me about this?"

Natsumi thought for a while. "I don´t know... ," she began. "I know that I felt completely honest while I´ve said it. And... and that I felt terrible and sad and my heart shook in my chest. I think I´ve done something and injured myself in some way or something like that which led into someone worrying about me. And then I apologised and told him not to worry, because I don´t like it much when I let people worry."

Kogami nodded.

"Could the injury you´re speaking of be your leg injury?" Kagari asked. "I think this would fit."

"I´m sorry. I have no idea. Also, it could be that I wasn´t injured, but almost injured. Or I have been incredibly ill and the person, I said those words to, thought I would die. I don´t know."

Kogami wrote everything down Natsumi said.

"Okay. 'Probably you´re lonely. I... I... You see... you live here all on you´re own. And this house is quite far away from everyone,'" he read aloud.

"Could it be that you had some creepy friend who didn´t like humans as a child?" Kagari asked. "I mean... you seem to have talked to someone _who is living all alone at a place far, far away_. I think this is not only kind of creepy."

Kogami frowned. "And then he or she decided that being lonely sucks and tried to befriend Sekimoto when she found him for some point?"

"Exactly."

"I´m sorry," Natsumi interposed. "When I´ve said those words... I felt... a cold wind. I can´t remember anything else. And... how could I have befriended or met someone who lived at a place where nobody else lived? I mean... if he or she had wanted to live at a place where people have difficulties to go, how should I have found it in the first place? This isn´t making much sense."

"But you _did_ say those words and I think this is the _only_ reason why you did say them," Kagari insisted.

"Okay. Let us go on," Kogami said before Natsumi and Kagari glared themselves to death. "'You´re lying. You´re a liar.' I don´t know but this could fit kind of perfectly with the next few sentences: 'You lie. You promised me to never lie to me. And now you are lying.'"

"Also if you ask me... this really sounds like she said those words to her boyfriend who told her he would always love her and then cheated on her which led into Natsumi-chan breaking up with him. She was seventeen after all," Kagari said, resulting in Natsumi turning into a gigantic tomato.

"I... I... I... I... I... I... ," she stuttered which reminded Kogami of his thought of her being a cyborg with a malfunctioning speaking area.

Kagari laughed. "I´m kidding, Natsumi-chan. We all know that you´re a pure and innocent flower who has never kissed anyone, thus never had a relationship or something like that."

This, however, resulted into Natsumi´s head looking like a gigantic tomato which was about to explode every second. She buried her face into her knees and Kogami looked away discretely. Kagari raised an eyebrow but had surprisingly the patience not to say anything, so they skipped this one and continued.

"'I´m... I´m not scared of you... ,'" Kogami read.

"_The Hunchback of Notre Dame_," Kagari said, nodding knowingly. "Or _The Beauty and the Biest_. Probably Natsumi-chan saw classical Disney movies as a child."

Kogami frowned. "Disney movies?"

Kagari nodded. "Could also be _Frozen_."

"I don´t think that this is the meaning of anything."

"Why not? Not everything in this world is complicated. Natsumi-chan, you were a big fan of Disney movies! That´s new information!"

Natsumi smiled a faint smile. Kagari grinned at her. It was always nice to see those two interacting.

"And now," Kagari said. "please read the next one, Ko-chan."

Kogami sighed. "'It feels like I´m dying... I´m dying on my birthday... ' I think she was ill on her birthday and it felt like dying. I mean... she isn´t dead, so she wasn´t actually dying."

Kagari nodded. "Right, right. Makes sense. Does is, Natsumi-chan?" She nodded. "Great. Next one, Ko-chan!"

"'I´m always wearing dresses and skirts.'"

"Natsumi-chan _always_ wears dresses and skirts. Seems like this has always been like that. I don´t think we should dig further. Seems pointless."

Kogami looked back at the piece of paper in his hands. He took a deep breath before he read the next part. "'I also can´t walk around there or around places with scanners.'"

Suddenly the air turned cold.

"What does this mean?" Kagari whispered after a while. His voice was rough and shaky.

Natsumi had gone all pale.

"What... what does this mean?" she squeaked and her voice was shakier than Kagari´s. Shudders ran through her body again.

"I have no idea," Kogami admitted. His chest felt heavy. "I don´t know what this should mean."

"Why did I say this?" Natsumi asked fearfully. "Why should I say to someone that I can´t walk around places with street scanners? Why should I avoid street scanners in the first place? Latent criminals avoid streets scanners... I... I´m not a latent criminal. My Hue doesn´t even reach the twenty-points mark! This doesn´t make any sense!"

Her hands began to shake uncontrollably and Kagari put one arm around her shoulders.

"Calm down," he said to her softly. "Your Hue will cloud."

Kogami saw how Natsumi pressed her lips together and just shook her head slowly.

"But it _doesn´t_ make sense, Kagari-kun. Why the hell should I have avoided street scanners for some point in my life? Even if I was once a latent criminal, it wouldn´t make any sense that my Psycho-Pass is so low right now. I´m not taking those terrible drugs. I´m doing _nothing_. I never did anything to keep my Hue clean. I just walk around and it just keeps clean. Many people I know struggle so much to keep their Psycho-Passes as low as possible. But I can do it without doing anything. It was always clear and is still clear and I have no damn idea why I should have avoided street scanners then. Street scanners only alarm when someone with a Psycho-Pass over 99 walks past them. They do nothing except this! This doesn´t make any sense!"

Natsumi stood up hastily, the blanket fell onto the ground. She clutched her hands together and her knuckles came out white. Then suddenly she separated her hands and then looked towards them. She looked like she would want to cry.

"My Psycho-Pass never rises," she whispered. "My Hue never clouds. I have no idea who I am and nothing happens. I´m an Inspector and and see terrible things every day and nothing happens. I cry and feel desperate and nothing happens. I was told that Mitsuru has died and saw his corpse and _nothing happens_."

"Natsumi-chan... ," Kagari started and reached out for her but she pushed away his hand.

"I... I... I... ," she stuttered, her whole body shaking horribly. Her utter lip shook when she looked at them with wet eyes. Then, she looked down.

"I need to go," she mumbled and then hurried out of the room.

* * *

January 2110

* * *

_The girl with the long black hair watched him as he moved through her room and examined everything._

_Fifteen minutes ago, Sasayama and Kogami had brought this girl, Kirino Toko, back home or better back to school as she attended Oso Academy ‒ a boarding school for girls. Of course, right after bringing her back, they could have left but the director of the academy had wanted to talk to Kogami, so Sasayama had decided to stay with Toko to have someone to speak with._

_Toko´s room was large, larger than the other rooms. She had told him as her father was an important person of the school they had given her a large room. It didn´t have any holograms as the school set value on being an old-fashioned school. The walls were of a nicely painted wallpaper of various brown tones. The bed was huge and full of pillows and cuddly toys. On the floor laid a fine and soft rug and the furniture was made of heavy dark wood. The room had an own bathroom and even a little balcony. It was a really nice room, despite the fact that it was incredibly messy._

_Toko didn´t seem quite fond of the fact that the Enforcer was looking around her room and scowled at him. He ignored it and examined the little board which hung over her messy desk full of piles of books and paper. The board was full of notes, stickers, paintings and... photographs._

_At the office of Division One Sasayama had emptied Toko´s bag out and found an old-fashioned camera. She had told him and Kogami that she liked photography and taught herself to take the best pictures. Sasayama gazed at the photographs. Some of them were wiggly but the other ones were pretty impressive. Clear and beautiful. However, when his gaze met a certain picture, he forgot the other ones immediately._

_The picture showed Toko in her school uniform, her greenish brown eyes shining in the light of the midday sun. She was smiling and had put one arm around the shoulder of another girl in the same uniform. The other girl was shorter than Toko with long brown hair in a high ponytail which was held together by a red ribbon. She was smiling too and had also put one arm around Toko´s shoulders._

_A pretty normal picture of two friends, taken by a third one. Or with the help of a tripod._

_Or it would be a normal picture if Sasayama hadn´t known the girl with the red ribbon next to Toko._

_He stared at it, his heart beating fast in his chest. Toko was around two years younger than the girl to her right, so they couldn´t have been in the same class. However, they had apparently gone to the same school and had become friends at some point. By the looks of those two girls, the picture wasn´t taken that long ago._

_Sasayama had immediately recognised the girl next to Toko. The brown hair, the big brown eyes with the slight touch of gold, the lovely and immensely beautiful smile which could lit up the darkness._

_His throat went dry._

"_Is anything wrong, Sasayama-san?" Toko asked politely._

"_The girl... ," he started, his voice a whisper. "... who is she?"_

_Toko frowned. "My best friend. Or... ," she stopped for a moment and when she continued her voice was low. "I don´t know. She vanished five months ago ‒ in August. Nobody has a clue where she went or why she didn´t say anything."_

August._ In August of the last year, Kogami had found a girl with long brown hair in a burning house. She had lost all her memories and had no clue who she was and why she had been in this house. But now, now Sasayama had found out something about her. And he had no idea if he should be happy or worried._

"_What is her name?" Sasayama asked and swallowed. It hurt._

"_Her name? It´s Niizaki Akane. She´s Shibata-sensei´s little sister."_

* * *

Her phone rung and woke her up. Natsumi nearly felt off her bed when she woke up and grabbed her mobile on her bedside table. She hadn´t got much sleep last night as she had always thought about what Kagari and Kogami had found out about her. And how her Hue never clouded. _"I also can´t walk around there or around places with scanners."_

Natsumi picked up her phone and saw that she had got a text message from her friend Funahara Yuki. Sleepily, she looked through it and when she was finished, she frowned and already knew that something was incredibly wrong.

"I hope I´m not bothering you, Kogami-san. It´s your day off after all," Natsumi said when they arrived.

"It´s also your day off, Sekimoto. And after everything we did to you yesterday, I think I have more than enough reasons to do you this little favour," Kogami replied and got out of the car.

"And your friend isn´t really the type who goes to such places?" he asked and she scowled at him.

"No, of course not. But it was her telephone number. And even if she didn´t write the message by herself, she´s certainly held captive or something like that. I called her earlier but she didn´t pick up her phone. And when I called at her workplace, they told me that she hasn´t arrived yet." Natsumi bit her lips. "I have a bad feeling about this. I have headaches, my chest hurts and I´m sleepy and could possibly hallucinate, but... the feeling that something is horribly wrong, that something horrible will happen or has already happened seems so _right._"

He nodded patiently. "I will be right back," he said softly and she gave him the weapons. With another nod Kogami left and entered the underground metro station, leaving her all alone.

* * *

She ran through the corridors.

They had found Kogami and Yuki after she had called the rest of Division One after she had seen that Kogami´s signal had done incredible things. They had found out that Kogami had solely been a chessman in a terrible fox hunt of life and death. In the end, he had won the game and successfully killed the culprit ‒ a man called Senguji Toyohisa. Natsumi´s head had started to ache badly when she had heard this name. However, Senguji had managed to injury Kogami, so he hadn´t been able to do anything when Yuki had been dragged away by someone else. Now Natsumi was hunting down the other culprit all by herself because Kogami couldn´t do anything with his injury, Masaoka had to fix his wounds and the others were elsewhere.

_I will save you, Yuki_, she told herself in her mind and clutched her Dominator tight while she ran. After a while she found Yuki and the other culprit. They were walking on a platform of a higher lever as the one Natsumi was walking on.

Natsumi stopped.

"MWPSB! Stop immediately!"

To her surprise, the man who had dragged away Yuki stopped and turned towards her. However, Natsumi had only eyes for her poor friend. Yuki´s face was pale and her expression mirrored true fear. Her light brown tresses circled her face messily. A horrible frame to a horrible picture.

"Natsumi!" she cried. "Help me!"

"I will, Yuki!" Natsumi called back and then turned to the man. He had white hair, a sharp face, intelligent yellow eyes and...

Her eyes widened when she recognised him.

_The Angel Boy. It´s the Angel Boy. It´s _my_ Angel Boy._

"I see ‒ you recognise me," he white-haired man said, happily and sadly at once.

_This doesn´t make any sense. This isn´t making sense._

"You´re Inspector Sekimoto Natsumi, right? Sheperd Two of the MWPSB´s Division One. Let me introduce me to you, if you please: my name is Makishima Shogo."

_Makishima._

Natsumi´s heart seemed to stop beating. _This is the Makishima in the picture. This is the Makishima who killed Sasayama-san. He exists. He really exists. _And he´s my Angel Boy.

She suddenly felt incredibly ill and her throat went dry.

"I command you to let this civilian go," she said with a shaky and rough voice.

"She´s a new friend of yours, right?" Makishima asked to her surprise. He spoke so _softly_ with her...

"Of course, she is," he answered his own question. "Because of that I used her in the first place. But don´t be afraid: I won´t hurt her. I never intended to."

"I don´t believe you. You dragged an innocent into danger. And you did it _on purpose_. Why should I believe you?"

_Point the Dominator at him. Point the Dominator at him. Point the Dominator at him. Do it. Do it _now, a faint voice in her head said but she ignored it.

"Why should you believe me?"

Suddenly Makishima let the shotgun, he had held until now, fall down and pulled something out of his pocket. He held it against Yuki´s neck and Yuki immediately lost her conscious and fell against the balustrade. Makishima picked her up and carefully placed her onto the platform.

Natsumi´s eyes widened.

"See? I did not harm her."

_He´s lying. He´s a liar. He´s a criminal. He´s bluffing. You can´t trust him._

She held her Dominator at him and her eyes shone blue.

"_Psycho-Pass is 39. Not a target for enforcement action. Trigger will be locked."_

She nearly dropped the Dominator.

_39? Not a target for enforcement action? How can this __be possible?_

Natsumi stared at Makishima in horror, her hands shaking horribly.

"Don´t be afraid," he said in a calm and soft voice. _He´s playing a double game with you. Don´t listen to him._

"I don´t want to hurt you or anybody."

_Liar._

She tightened her grip on the Dominator. "Because of you Kogami-san was hurt. Because of you Yuki was dragged into my dangerous work. Because of you _Mitsuru was killed._"

Makishima´s eyes widened, took a step back as she had punched him and then he looked incredibly sorry.

"_Sasayama Mitsuru?_ You were friends with him?" he asked with a faint voice.

Natsumi bit her lips and pointed the Dominator at him, her eyes flashing blue.

"_Crime Coefficient is 30.2. Not a target for enforcement action. Trigger will be locked."_

She nearly burst into tears.

"I had no idea," he whispered and she hated him so much for playing such a dreadful game with her.

"I would have let him live if I had known," Makishima continued, his voice full of fake honesty. "Even if he had been an Enforcer and a dog of Sibyl. I would never hurt any of your friends because I know how much this would hurt you. I never wanted to hurt Funahara Yuki, I just needed her to get the chance to lure you out because I had to speak with you. And if I had known about your relationship with this Sasayama, I would have fought to let him live. I promise."

Suddenly his eyes turned hard and they were filled with burning hatred.

"This dirty other Enforcer, however, this Kogami Shinya. The former bastard Inspector. For him I don´t feel sorry. I wish Senguji had killed him-"

"_Crime Coefficient is 22.7. Not a target for enforcement action. Trigger will be locked."_

Natsumi ground her teeth and let the Dominator sink.

Makishima looked at her with sorrow in his eyes. "I still can´t believe what does terrible people have done to you, Dearie. They made you confused, they made you forgot. They made you a will-less puppet. I wish I could have avoided it."

"_Crime Coefficient is 15.1. Not a target for enforcement action. Trigger will be locked."_

With anger filling her body rapidly, Natsumi smashed the Dominator onto the ground. Of course, it didn´t break. With hateful eyes she looked up to Makishima.

"Stop playing this game with me, Makishima! I don´t believe any word you say! You´re a criminal! I have no idea why your Psycho-Pass keeps increasing, but I know that you´re the evilness in person! And stop doing like you would know me!"

Her whole body shook and Makishima looked at her in horror when he saw the hatred in her eyes. _Good, good. See that you can´t fool me..._

"Dearie... ," he started but she cut him off.

"Don´t call me like that! You´re a criminal! You´re a liar! _You have always been a liar, Makishima Shogo!_"

Before Natsumi knew what she was saying, she blurted the words out and right after she had said them aloud, her eyes widened and she quickly covered her mouth with her hands, staring at Makishima who stared back at her.

"_You remember_," he whispered faintly and she heard his voice shake.

"Dearie Girlie... I never wanted to yell at you," he said in a shaky and faint voice and Natsumi´s whole body shook because of his words. A little part of her knew that everything he was saying was true, but the rest yelled and shouted that this wasn´t possible. Because this just couldn´t be possible. She had no idea what she should believe.

"But you have been wrong," he continued. "He has never been a traitor: he tried to _help_ you when those people of the MWPSB took you away and brainwashed you. He was incredibly sorry for having been too slow. He hasn´t been able to save you and could only see you being dragged away. Dearie, the MWPSB took you away from me because they are dogs of the System and Sibyl _fears_ us. It fears us because of the things we could do to it. We´re the exceptions, Dearie. We are those who can´t be judged. You can see it, right? After all those things I have done in my revenge, my Psycho-Pass never rose. Point your Dominator at me again. Try it."

Natsumi looked down on the gun which laid onto the ground. Coldness ran down her spine when she slowly bent down and grabbed it. The metal felt incredibly icy and heavy now. With hesitate she pointed the Dominator at Makishima again, fearing what it would measure while her eyes turned blue for a second.

"_Crime Coefficient is 0. Not a target for enforcement action. Trigger will be locked."_

She closed her eyes and icy hands grabbed her from beneath. Her body suddenly felt numb and she wasn´t able to hold the Dominator anymore. Again, it fell onto the ground and this time the sound it made at the landing rung in her ears.

Natsumi clutched her hands tight. They shook as intense as never. It was scary.

"Dearie," Makishima said with an incredibly soft voice. It made her feel ill how familiar this voice was. "You have to believe me. After your parents died in 2102, I´ve found you and taken you in. We spent seven years together and would have spend even more if Sibyl had never found out about your ability. I have no idea how they managed to find out about it, but they did and took you away from me. On this day I imprisoned you in our home after we had a fight because I did not want you to run away, but you managed to break out and ran away anyway. You ran away and towards the city where the System had it easy to catch you. The System commanded Division One of the MWPSB to catch you, Dearie. In 2109, Division One was led by Ginoza Nobuchika and Kogami Shinya. Whatever they have told you, Dearie, is a lie. They´re liars. Kogami Shinya himself has dragged you into one of those dreadful paddy wagons and brought you right to Sibyl. However, they did not kill you straightaway because they saw your incredible talents and didn´t want to waste them. Also, they thought your skills could help hunting down the others of our kind you have interacted with. They knew that there were more than you because they couldn´t imagine you living all alone for such a long time. After your parents´s death the police searched after you, Dearie. When they didn´t find you, they labeled you as dead too. But you weren´t dead, you were with me. In Sibyl´s eyes you could have never lived seven years all on your own and because of your inability to be judged they assumed that you have lived with people like you. Sibyl has always exploited you, Dearie. They took away your memories and told you lies and you believed them because you´re such a lovely person and would never think that someone could do such things to you. Those people of the MWPSB, especially Division One, know the truth about you, Dearie. They lie to you every day. Those people aren´t your friends. _I_ am your friend and I´m so terribly sorry that I wasn´t able to keep you safe as I promised you."

Headaches filled Natsumi´s temples and she closed her eyes. Suddenly, light flashed before her inner eye and she saw fragments of almost forgotten memories: she, sitting under a tree, her head on the lap of an Angel Boy with shining white hair. She, laughing with an elderly man with slightly greying hair. She, being tucked in by the Angel Boy. She, drinking tea with a man with terrifying eyes. She, hugging the Angel Boy. She, telling the Angel Boy how much she loved him. She, smiling when he said that he loved her too.

Tears filled her eyes, but she kept them closed. Suddenly she felt terribly empty inside, but her body seemed to have caught fire too. She was feeling numb and burned at once.

_The Angel Boy is Makishima Shogo. The Angel Boy is Makishima Shogo. The Angel Boy is Makishima Shogo._

_Makishima Shogo is my friend, my brother._

_My guardian angel._

"I can´t take you with me now," Makishima said with a hollow voice. He didn´t seem to like what he was going to say now, but he knew that he had no other choice.

"I would _love_ to take you with me, Dearie. I´ve missed you so much in the last years and really want you back. You´re my best friend and my beloved little sister. After I thought you have died... I couldn´t imagine living in a world without you. But now I have found you and I don´t want to leave you again. But I know that it wouldn´t be clever to take you with me now, because of two reasons: first, Sibyl shouldn´t know that you´re now aware the truth. That you´re aware of the things it has done to you. If I took you with me now, Sibyl could do terrible things to this woman, Funahara Yuki, or your other friends, in order to lure you out. Second... " Makishima stopped for a moment. "Second, I think you should have time to collect your thoughts and rearrange your memories. Taking you with me immediately, wouldn´t help in any way. You now know me as 'Makishima Shogo, the criminal' and I know how much you´re fighting back your memories, our connection, because of it. You need time to think. Also... also, I want you to come back to me on your own. I don´t want to force you to do something. I want you to be able to make your own decisions. But, even if you decide not to come back to me, be cautious: those people around you, those people of the MWPSB and Sibyl itself, are your enemies."

He stopped again and Natsumi could hear steps behind her.

"Someone is coming for you," he continued quickly. She heard him searching for something in his pockets. "This is something you lost in my house before you ran away. I don´t know what this is but this has always helped to calm you down. And I think you should have it again as it is yours."

Makishima probably threw the thing because it landed right before her feet moments later. Then she heard him walking away.

"It was good to see you again. And I hope we will meet again. And you can´t imagine how happy I am that I was able to see you again, even through such circumstances. And _please_ take care of yourself, Dearie Girlie ‒ Tsunemori Akane." With those words he left. After he had left Natsumi couldn´t stand it anymore and finally collapsed onto the ground, her knees hitting the ground hard. She was feeling terrible and finally opened her eyes, let her tears free. She sobbed dreadfully and she feared that she wouldn´t stop crying.

One shudder followed another one and Natsumi´s body felt like it was about to fall apart. The headaches burned her temples and drove her crazy. She lifted her hands and held her head, screaming a bit over her cries. She was seeing blurry and her mind was clouded. Natsumi leaned forward and rested her head onto the ground, feeling the cold metal under her. She left one hand on her head, with the other one she reached out for the thing Makishima had left her. Natsumi put her fingers around the little wooden circle on the twine and moved her thumb over the indentations. Suddenly, warmth flowed through her body, but her tears kept floating. Natsumi initially remembered how much she had missed this simple necklace, the shape, the lovingly done indentations, the comfort it gave her.

She put her hand away from her head, curled up onto the cold metal and pressed the little necklace against her chest. Her head hurt and her memories contradicted themselves badly. Her body felt numb and she was crying and crying.

Natsumi didn´t want to believe Makishima´s words, but something in her said that she had to. Because he was telling her the truth. But if he was saying the truth... would this mean that Kogami and the others were really liars? That they would really know who she was and just wouldn´t tell her because of Sibyl?

Those had been her friends. Sasayama, Kogami, Karanomori, Kunizuka, Masaoka, probably even Ginoza... how could this people be, in fact, her enemies? And did Kagari know about anything, even if he hadn´t been a member of the MWPSB three years ago?

Her friends were, in fact, her enemies. And her biggest enemy, one of the persons who were responsible of Sasayama´s death, was her best friend.

_This can´t be real. This can´t be real. This can´t be real._

Natsumi felt the ground vibrating. Someone was coming. Kagari? Kunizuka? Masaoka? Ginoza? She didn´t know. She didn´t _want_ to know. Because, whoever it was, this person could be telling her lies, giving her false pity and worry.

She didn´t know whom she could trust anymore.

"_I´m Makishima Shogo and you can trust me. I promise."_

* * *

The sky was dark when Kogami Shinya opened his eyes again.

He was lying on a stretcher, his body bandaged. His head still hurt because of Masaoka´s clout. For a moment he had no idea why he was lying on a stretcher, then he remembered. He remembered Natsumi´s call, Funahara Yuki, the Fox Hunt, Senguji Toyohisa. He remembered being shot and Yuki being dragged away by another person, a new one. He remembered trying to help her, but failing. And he remembered that he had told Natsumi about it afterwards and watching her running after them.

_Natsumi._

Suddenly, Kogami could think properly again and he tried to stand up and to search for her. _She needs to be safe, she needs to be safe..._

"Don´t do anything dumb and lay back down, Kogami," he heard Ginoza´s angry voice over him. Kogami blinked.

"I have to see Inspector Sekimoto," he told his old friend and was surprised that he had managed to speak with his injuries.

Ginoza sighed.

"Very well," he said and then pushed him forward. After a while Ginoza stopped and lowered the stretcher, so Kogami could see something. He couldn´t see Masaoka, Kunizuka, Kagari or Funahara Yuki anywhere, he could only see Sekimoto Natsumi sitting in a wheelchair, a blanket wrapped around her shoulders. She was staring down her laps and was holding something in-between her hands, but he couldn´t see what it was. She didn´t move or did anything. She just sit there and stared down her laps with a terrifying blank look on her face. However, her face was wet, so Kogami assumed that she had been crying for some point. This realisation felt like needles being stabbed through his heart.

He reached out for her and touched her arm. She didn´t look up, didn´t even flinch. Now, he really started to worry.

_What has this person done to her who had taken Funahara away?_

"Masaoka found her crying, curled up on a platform," Ginoza informed him, his voice sounding honestly sad. Even if he had never admitted it, he had always liked Natsumi.

"But she wasn´t only crying but also screaming. And when he picked her up, she suddenly stiffened in his arms before she started crying again."

A horrible thought crossed Kogami´s mind.

"Her friend. Funahara Yuki. Was she... ," he began with a faint voice, but was cut off by Ginoza.

"... killed? No, she wasn´t. She´s surprisingly alive. When we found her, she was lying unconscious on the platform over the one Natsumi was crying on."

This would mean that Natsumi had seen her friend dying, wasn´t the right answer to this riddle.

Kogami craned his head and looked at Natsumi. She kept staring at her laps.

"Did you find the person who has dragged away Funahara Yuki?" he asked Ginoza, without taking his gaze off Natsumi.

"We searched, but couldn´t find anyone. Inspector Sekimoto is the only one who has seen him or her, but she refuses to talk."

"Where are the others? Tottsan, Kagari, Kunizuka and Funahara?"

"At the paddy wagon. Masaoka tries to comfort Inspector Sekimoto´s friend. She seems to be worried about Inspector Sekimoto. After she has woken up, she rushed immediately to Inspector Sekimoto ‒ only to find her in this state. She shook her and talked to her, thanking her that she has saved her but Inspector Sekimoto remained still. This upset her quite a lot."

Kogami kept looking at Natsumi. Ginoza noticed it and sighed.

"I think I should let the two of you alone now." With those words he turned and walked away. Kogami touched her arm again.

"Sekimoto," he whispered. Not even now he could use her first name. "What has happened to you? What has this person done to you?"

She didn´t answer. Of course she didn´t.

His gaze fell onto her hands. She had clutched them together as usual but now it seemed that she was also holding something in-between them. Kogami frowned and tried to catch a better look at the thing in Natsumi´s hands. His frown deepened when he saw that the thing was a wooden circle which hung on a twine.

* * *

**The quote is by Katherine Anne Porter.**

**Puh. This chapter, chapter 13 and 14 were/are sooo painful to write and I hope there isn't anything odd or confusing or particularly silly. Also, I think those chapters and the one after them are the most OOC ones... .**

**Whatever, because I'm now free for about a month and some weeks before the "middle grade graduation" thingie will continue, upload will come more often again. Yey! :)**

**(Hopefully.)**

**See you next time!**

**Momo**

_**\- currently (finally!) finishing chapter 14 and also trying not to do such long chapters anymore... (trying)**_


	17. Burning Away

**Uff.**

**I wanted to upload this way earlier and also wanted to have Chapter 15 finished by now.**

**And of course, I wanted to write shorter chapters.**

**And of course, things don't seem to turn out like they should again. *sigh***

**I finished the B-Plot of Chapter 15 and it's already as long as this _whole_ chapter. I think, shorter chapters aren't really possible right now.**

**Hopefully, it's okay when the progress of uploading needs a bit more time than said because of that... (I'm so sorry.)**

**And hopefully I'm not doing anything wrong. That I forgot something or that something just doesn't make any sense or that everything seems silly or cheesy or unreasonable or something like that...**

***sigh***

**However, I thank you all for reading and supporting this story and I hope you enjoy and like this chapter!**

* * *

**Chapter Thirteen:**

**Burning Away**

* * *

_"Sometimes, remembering hurts too much."_

* * *

December 2112

* * *

The first thing Kogami Shinya saw when he entered the office of Division One was Sekimoto Natsumi´s empty desk.

_Of course she isn´t here_, he thought as he felt pain and sadness filling his chest and grabbing his heart. Two days ago, she had confronted someone who had shattered her completely in the cause of some minutes. He felt incredibly guilty that he hadn´t been able to stop her chasing him down back then. If he had been able to stop her, she would be here today...

Nobody had a clue what had exactly happened two days ago during their confrontation, but everyone knew that something horrible had occurred. Something horrible which had traumatised Natsumi completely. She didn´t speak, didn´t do anything. She just kept looking with a blank gaze at some random point. It had torn everyone´s heart apart to see their usually cheerful Inspector like that.

Kogami clenched his fists. Whoever had done this to her would have to pay for it.

"_Kogami? Can you promise me something?"_

* * *

"_They lie to you every day. Those people aren´t your friends. _I_ am your friend and I´m so terribly sorry that I wasn´t able to keep you safe as I promised you."_

What wasn´t a lie nowadays?

Natsumi laid on her bed, looking up at her ceiling. She hadn´t turned on the holograms or Candy, so she looked up at a completely boring, ash grey ceiling.

After Masaoka had found her on the platform and Division One had brought her to Karanomori Shion to check that she´s physically fine, Ginoza had taken her home. Now she was acting like a ghost in her own apartment whose look started to creep her out gradually. The MWPSB had given her this apartment as a reward for her help in the PF-0945 case three years ago. But after the things Makishima had told her two days ago, she couldn´t stand it to live here anymore. And no matter how often she would say to herself that he was a liar ‒ it wouldn´t change the fact that she _had_ remembered their shared past. That she _knew_ in the deepest corner of her mind that he wasn´t lying.

Even if she didn´t want him to say the truth.

"_Those people aren´t your friends."_

She rolled to her side and clutched the little pendant in her hands. In the last two days she had remembered various little scenes from her past. Unfortunately, she hadn´t remembered how she had got this little pendant. Not even Makishima seemed to know it. Still it gave her comfort when she ran her thumb over the fainted indentations and wondered what had originally been written on the wooden circle.

"_Also, sometimes, you instinctively reach out for something on your chest ‒ but there isn´t anything,"_ she remembered Saiga´s words. It seemed as this simple necklace had been the something she had always reached out for instinctively.

Natsumi closed her eyes and clutched the pendant tighter. She had as much days off as she needed to recover. One part of her wanted to immediately walk out of her apartment and to go back to work as it despised showing weakness. Another part of her, however, didn´t want to go back again as it hated herself for believing Makishima´s words.

"_Those people aren´t your friends."_

"_Whatever they have told you, Dearie, is a lie. They´re liars. Kogami Shinya himself has dragged you into one of those dreadful paddy wagons and brought you right to Sibyl."_

_Kogami._

Pain circled her heart as she thought about him. How could he be a liar? He and Kagari had helped her to gain back her memories. Kogami had been Sasayama´s friend and also Natsumi´s friend. Her saviour. He had always been kind to her and... and...

She believed Makishima. She hated to believe Makishima, but she knew that she had to ‒ because he was right. And still she couldn´t imagine Ginoza, Kogami, Masaoka, Sasayama, Karanomori and Kunizuka being her enemies. They had done so much for her after she had been brought to the MWPSB Tower and they discovered that she had lost her memories. Those people had been her friends for such a long time ‒ those nice people, who had helped her with her amnesia. Natsumi remembered the friendly talks she had with Kunizuka and Karanomori, the nice advice she had got from Masaoka, the times she had talked with Ginoza about every imaginable plant and the Christmas she had come over and found Ginoza all alone and the many, many funny moments she had with Sasayama and Kogami, the long walks, the festivals, the games, the long movie nights.

Natsumi believed Makishima´s words but it was still hard to imagine those people as her enemies, their actions as sole instruments to gain her trust and to fool her. She especially rethought Sasayama´s actions.

With him she had always been the most closest. She had also been always close with Kogami, but there had always been something between them which they had never figured out. And now with him being an Enforcer, she doubted she would ever get to know. Even if she believed that this "something" still laid between them.

Natsumi had adored Sasayama ‒ no matter what others said of him, he had always been nice to her. He had helped her with every problem she had, they had shared secrets, laughter, memories. Back then she had lived in one of the Enforcer apartments as she had no place to go. They had been somewhat neighbours and had often visited each other after work. Sometimes Kogami had joined them and they had played some games or watched some movie together, talked and laughed. Even if she had been quite insecure because of her amnesia, she had never felt as complete as in those moments which they had spent together.

And now all those memories should be lies?

She didn´t want to believe it. She trusted Makishima and knew that he was saying the truth but... she had the feeling that someone just didn´t fit in with everything, but she couldn´t remember. She, the dumb girl, couldn´t remember anything.

All her problems came from her inability to remember anything important. Natsumi remembered little, trivial things but nothing helpful. Nothing which could help her to disentangle this big mess. This big mess in her head. And the chronicle of events.

Makishima had told her what he thought was right ‒ but what if the things he thought were right were, in fact, horribly wrong? What if he had been tricked? What if they _all_ had been tricked?

Deep inside her mind, Natsumi knew that something was incredibly wrong. That something just didn´t want to fit in with everything. That there was an odd piece in this huge messy puzzle.

And she just had to remember _what_. She knew it. She _knew_ what it was. But the "odd thing" was hidden behind millions of thick walls in the darkest corner of her mind.

Natsumi was tired of walking in the darkness. She wanted to know the truth. She _needed_ to.

And she exactly knew what she had to do now to break down those walls and let the light free.

* * *

A completely hysterical Kagari Shusei entered Kogami´s Enforcer apartment. He hadn´t even knocked. He had just walked in like he had bees in his pants and looked shocked or somewhat terrified ‒ Kogami had no idea.

He looked at his fellow Enforcer with one raised eyebrow as he tried to say something which was horribly confusing as Kagari seemed to have forgotten how to tell stories.

"_Breathe_, Kagari," Kogami said after he had given up trying to bring Kagari´s words into a logical order. "Calm down, think about your words and _then_ ‒ talk."

Kagari took a deep breath and seemed to collect his thoughts. "Natsumi-chan´s returned," he said in the end.

Kogami stared at him in disbelief. Natsumi was... _here_? Here at the MWPSB Tower? He wanted to ask further but Kagari, being terribly jumpy today, had already started to continue.

"Right after you went away after your shift´s end, Natsumi-chan came through the office´s door as she had waited for this moment to come."

Kogami narrowed his eyes and pressed his teeth together. This girl...

"_I have no idea. This girl will either be one of our greatest companions or our deadliest enemy."_

Kagari took another deep breath before he continued.

"She said that she wanted to do a Memory Scoop."

Kogami stared at him. What was she thinking? A Memory Scoop... Only a few people could handle a Memory Scoop without becoming a latent criminal.

"Why should she want to do such a thing?"

He looked at him with big, worried eyes. "Natsumi-chan told us who was the person helping Senguji Toyohisa. You know, the one who had traumatised her." Suddenly Kagari looked incredibly angry at this thought. He rarely looked like this.

"Who was the person?" Kogami asked with a dry throat. For some reason he didn´t want to know it.

Kanehara Yuji ‒ the drone factory case. Mido Masatake ‒ the Talisman Case. Oryo Rikako ‒ the retell of the Specimen Case. All of them had had help to commit their desired crimes. And after the Talisman Case Kogami had begun to notice something, something which had reminded him of something else. But the retell of the Specimen Case had made everything clear: the person, Sasayama had been after all those years ago, was the true mastermind behind all those crimes.

And now Senguji Toyohisa ‒ the Fox Hunt.

He piped down and waited for Kagari to speak.

"It was Makishima Shogo," he said with a pained face and Kogami was already standing on his feet.

* * *

"Are you really sure that you want to do this?" Ginoza asked when Natsumi sat down the rectangular block which was rising out of the ground of Karanomori´s laboratory.

She nodded. "I was never so sure in my entire life, Ginoza-san," she said steadily, trying not to look into his eyes.

Natsumi knew that this was reckless ‒ probably the most reckless thing which she had ever been about to do. And she tried to imagine how Sasayama would react to this ‒ amused or worried? Memory Scoops were dangerous things after all. Reliving memories of every kind in such a forced way wasn´t good for the psyche and most of the people who had ever done a Scoop were latent criminals or dead now. Only the fewest were walking around as free citizens under Sibyl´s observant eyes. This had been one of the reasons why she hadn´t done one three years ago. Also ‒ her memories hadn´t been necessary for the PF-0945 case, so Chief Kasei hadn´t allowed it. Memory Scoops were only used when it was necessary.

Like now.

Natsumi bit her lips and reached out for the little pendant resting on her chest.

"_My Psycho-Pass never rises. My Crime Coefficient never clouds. I have no idea who I am and nothing happens. I´m an Inspector and and see terrible things every day and nothing happens. I cry and feel desperate and nothing happens. I was told that Mitsuru had died and saw his corpse and _nothing happens_."_

Three years ago, they had had no idea how stable her mind was, but now she knew. Her Psycho-Pass was so stable, so healthy ‒ it even scared her. But right now she liked this little "power" of hers. The "ability" Makishima had spoken of. Her ability to control her Psycho-Pass. She hadn´t tested it, she had been too afraid of it. But then her Psycho-Pass had always been incredibly low. To accept that your Psycho-Pass would never really rise was easier than to accept that you could _control_ it. It was just too unbelievable.

But then ‒ Makishima managed to do it, right?

"_We´re the exceptions, Dearie. We are those who can´t be judged."_

"We are those who cannot be judged," Natsumi mumbled to herself without tone. "We are those who cannot be judged."

She looked up and met Ginoza´s eyes. He looked worried. Masaoka, he, Kagari, Karanomori and even Kunizuka had tried to convince her not to do the Memory Scoop. But then they had no idea what she was capable of. They had no idea of her hidden talent.

"_Sibyl _fears_ us. It fears us because of the things we could do to it."_

And they would never know.

Ginoza took a deep breath. Funnily, he was more nervous than she was. Like _he_ was the one who was going to do a Scoop. "Last time to go back, Sekimoto," he said, his glasses reflecting the dim light and preventing her to see his eyes clearly.

"There never was such a time, Ginoza-san, and you know it," she replied softly. "We need this picture. We need to find Makishima Shogo."

_We need to imprison my guardian angel._

Suddenly Natsumi´s mouth went dry, but she swallowed and took Ginoza´s hand.

"It will be _okay_, okay? Trust me. I will be fine. _Everything will be fine_. You won´t lose me," she said insistently. He feared so much to lose her, she knew, because he had already lost Kogami and Masaoka to Sibyl´s judgement. But he wouldn´t lose her. She couldn´t be judged. But... what if her memories were so intense that she... lost control?

_Don´t even _think_ about such things_, she scolded herself.

Natsumi squeezed his hand before letting it go and leaning back onto the block. A helmet was put on her head and Karanomori said some things. She just nodded. And then it started.

* * *

"_Why didn´t you and the others do anything?_" Kogami yelled.

"Memory Scoops are highly dangerous! This could destroy her Psycho-Pass forever!"

He had never been so enraged before.

"We tried," Kagari replied, his gaze steady. "But Natsumi-chan can be horribly stubborn if she wants to. She didn´t want to listen to us. We spoke, we tried and we failed. I thought you could be the only one now to talk her out of this insanity, so I came here to tell you."

Kogami glared at him, even if he didn´t intend to. "Where is she now? _Where is Inspector Sekimoto?_"

"I think she´s still at the office. But she could have seen me creeping out so... "

He didn´t need to hear more, Kogami Shinya was already rushing out of his apartment and running towards Karanomori´s laboratory like a maniac.

_This girl. This horribly stupid girl. Why has she be so reckless?_

He passed other Enforcers and Inspectors who blinked at him in confusion and some robots told him not to run in the corridors but all of those things didn´t matter right now. The only thing which mattered was Natsumi.

Kogami arrived at the laboratory and wanted to enter but the door just didn´t want to open. Karanomori´s door was more or less _always_ open. And as he knew, Karanomori was the only one who could lock and unlock this door. And he could never imagine her unlocking the door. Kagari had said that she had tried to convince Natsumi too. So, her locking this door didn´t make any sense. But why wasn´t it open right now? Could it be that... ?

He shook his head. No. Sekimoto Natsumi had no idea how to hack things ‒ but then she had always been a girl full of surprises. Since the day he had saved her.

Glaring at the locked door, he tried to call Karanomori but for some point his holo device ‒ the special, multifunctional one which was exclusive for members of the MWPSB ‒ couldn´t connect with hers. Frowning, Kogami tried to reach Ginoza but again he failed. He even tried to phone Natsumi but his device just couldn´t _find_ the location of their devices. It was like they had simply _vanished_. Annoyed, he ground his teeth. The door was locked and he couldn´t contact Karanomori, Ginoza and Natsumi and Natsumi had arrived shortly after his shift´s end. This couldn´t be just one big coincidence. This damn Sekimoto Natsumi had planned all this from the beginning to the end.

Kogami punched against the metallic door. Once, twice... He punched as hard as he could. He knew that it wouldn´t help, but he did it anyway. He was so angry, he felt so helpless... Natsumi was in there and did something which could damage her completely. No matter how healthy her Hue and Psycho-Pass was. There was _no way_ that she could survive this process without damages.

"Damn it, Sekimoto!" he cried out and kicked against the door. He needed to get in. He needed to get in and carry this stupid girl out. It was for her own safety. Even if this would mean that they couldn´t get a picture of Sasayama´s murderer.

Kogami continued to batter the door in the hope that Karanomori would hear or see him through the cameras and open the door for him. He needed to be in this room. He _needed_ to! He just _had_ to! Natsumi had no idea what she was doing. She had just come back to work after having been absent for two days! He saw her blank eyes and her dullness after the Fox Hunt and his anger rose. Whatever Makishima had done to her ‒ it wouldn´t be good for her to relive it again.

He just couldn´t stand here and see while Natsumi ‒ little, lovely Natsumi with the shining smile ‒ would break in this stupid, unreachable room.

Kogami punched and kicked and yelled and with every yell, every punch, every kick he felt more enraged and more helpless ‒ useless.

"_Kogami? Can you promise me something?"_

* * *

Her sixteenth birthday had been a funny one, she now remembered. She had been ill and Makishima had been alongside her bed the whole day. He had spoken to her, but she hadn´t remembered what he had been saying back then. However, Natsumi had remembered in the two days of complete isolation her late birthday present: Makishima´s best friend and red hand was a hacker from South Korea and the amazing Choe Gu-sung had taught her how to hack things as a present. It had been incredibly sweet of him. And she was really thankful that she had remembered this and that she was still able to hack things. _Thank you, Gu-sung_, she thought in the moment right before the Memory Scoop started and hoped that Karanomori wouldn´t notice what she had done to her door or to the whole room.

The Scoop began and she concentrated on the day she had met Makishima after the Fox Hunt. Natsumi was horribly glad in this moment that you couldn´t "catch" voices via the Scoop, just pictures. She didn´t want to know what they would do to her if they found out what Makishima had said to her. If they found out who she really was.

She concentrated on Makishima´s appearance, his face, his clothes. Natsumi had no idea if her thought was right. If the Memory Scoop was really able to help her breaking free her memories. But... when Memory Scoops could shatter minds and psyches... why not walls in the mind?

Natsumi saw Makishima in front of her, right after he had pardoned Yuki. She was pointing the Dominator at him, but she wasn´t able to shoot. _"Psycho-Pass is 39. Not a target for enforcement action. Trigger will be locked_,_"_ she remembered the Dominator´s words. She couldn´t see him clearly, just as a faint and blurry picture. Everything was shaky and looked like some surreal painting.

Her past-self was just telling him about Sasayama and Makishima´s eyes widened, he looked so sad. So genuinely sad. Feelings rebelled in her chest.

"_I would have let him live if I had known_,_"_ he had said. Back than she had thought that he had been lying, that he was trying to trick her in the worst possible way. Now she knew it better.

"_I would have let him live if I had known."_

His words filled her mind and suddenly she felt like she was about to cry but she fought the tears back and then her memory changed and she glimpsed at another scene. She was sitting in an alley and Natsumi could even feel the coldness. She tried focusing back on Makishima and the memory changed again.

The Natsumi of two days ago was now yelling at him and she was so glad that nobody could hear her.

"_Don´t call me like that! You´re a criminal! You´re a liar! _You have always been a liar, Makishima Shogo!_"_

If they were able to hear this, this would already be her end. It was impossible how to logically explain how she had known his full name before this day without revealing her past after all.

Makishima was staring at her enraged face. She could still clearly hear him calling her "Dearie Girlie" and contradicting feelings ran all over her body. The memory changed again and now she saw to her surprise Sasayama. Natsumi took a glimpse at his friendly face, his warm, brown eyes, his nicely shaped face and coldness rushed over her.

_You can´t think about him now. Think about Shogo_, she forced herself and said silently goodbye to Sasayama who was laughing in her memory.

She had just lost her Dominator now and was just staring up at Makishima who told her things she didn´t want to know. She didn´t want to be real.

And suddenly the scene before her eyes jumped and jumped around. She saw Choe, Senguji, Makishima and a girl with long, black hair in-between Kogami, Sasayama and Division One. Sometimes she was just a child, not older than ten, sometimes she was seventeen and feeling completely lost in some club. And sometimes fragments of her early childhood came to her mind: her running around happily, a forest, her first day at school, a sunset ‒ framed in-between fire, flames and heat. And then she saw the scene again when she had glimpsed at Kogami for the first time while he had been rescuing her before fainting again and how she had thought that she was save now. That everything would become okay. Every was so messed and mixed up right now... Like everything else.

_Focus, Natsumi. Focus._

It took her a lot of strength to bring back the scene with Makishima. _Karanomori-san and Ginoza-san shouldn´t see my other memories. They shouldn´t._

And with her final piece of power, with all her force, Natsumi cleaned up the blurry picture and was now looking right into Makishima´s face. She could see the fine, familiar lines of his face, the white hair, the yellowish, amber-coloured eyes who shone in the dim light like jewels.

She had missed his friendly and handsome face so much, she hadn´t known.

_Sho_, she thought with tears threatening to flow down her cheeks. _Oh, Sho. I´m so sorry. I´m so sorry. I´m so sorry..._

And then the Memory Scoop finished and Natsumi was freed from the helmet. She sat up and curled herself up. Her cheeks were already wet and now was the perfect time to break down.

_I´m a traitor. I´m a horrible traitor. I´ve just betrayed my own brother._

Memories of him reading something to her before bedtime flashed through her inner eye and tears came out of her eyes like endless rivers.

"Sekimoto." Natsumi could hear Ginoza´s voice from a far place.

"It´s over. We have the picture." It was like she was underwater and probably she was. Judging from the amount of water coming out of her...

"Inspector... "

Before Ginoza could reach out and touch her, Natsumi flinched and sat up, whipping away the tears with the back of her hand. Her body felt like made of pudding.

"I´m fine, Ginoza-san," she said as steady as she was able to and even tried a faint smile. It had been good to see Sasayama, Makishima, Choe and the other as much as it had been terrible.

Natsumi let her smile widen a bit. "Just check my Psycho-Pass if you can´t trust me. It won´t lie."

_The great time has come ‒ did I lose control or is everything alright?_

"Karanomori," Ginoza said. His face was pale and his green eyes full of worry. She didn´t want to see Kagari´s or Kogami´s face. Oh, _Kogami_.

"It´s... _wow_," Karanomori breathed. "That´s... that´s _incredible_! Her Psycho-Pass only rose once by just seven points and then sunk again immediately. It´s currently... " She paused and Natsumi could hear how her cigarette fell onto the ground.

She mumbled something unintelligible.

"What did you say, Karanomori?" Ginoza asked.

She mumbled again.

"Could you please speak clearly?"

"It´s _twelve_," Karanomori said breathless. "I´ve never seen something like this before."

_Probably I have overplayed something_, Natsumi thought and looked back at Ginoza.

"See? I´m more than just fine. Told you, didn´t I?"

She slid down the block and stood on her pudding legs. "If you excuse me." Natsumi turned and left the laboratory after quickly typing something into the little number field next to the door ‒ "01042092" ‒ which would bring this room back to its standards. While trying to leave Kogami nearly punched her into the face but thankfully managed to stop before he hit her. He stepped back and scowled at her.

"Sekimoto," he said toneless. He looked so big right now and she felt so little. She looked away.

"We need to talk."

Natsumi tried her best to ignore him and went past him but he grabbed her wrist.

"We need to talk _now_." She could feel his glare drilling into her back and breaking her spine. Still, she stopped.

"How is your Psycho-Pass?" Kogami asked silently, it was almost a whisper.

"Can´t you guess?" she replied with a dry throat, freed herself from his grip and then quickly left the MWPSB Tower. Right now she just wanted to cry into her pillow like some confused teenage girl.

* * *

He looked after her. The thought of hurrying after her crossed his mind but something hindered him. Kogami watched her after she disappeared behind a corner. "Can´t you guess?" ‒ her last words echoed in his mind.

"_My Psycho-Pass never rises. My Hue never clouds. I have no idea who I am and nothing happens. I´m an Inspector and and see terrible things every day and nothing happens. I cry and feel desperate and nothing happens. I was told that Mitsuru had died and saw his corpse and _nothing happens,_"_ he remembered what she had said to Kagari and him on the day when they had stepped outside every logic and tried hypnosis. _Probably, she doesn´t need to be protected anymore_, he thought and suddenly he felt something aching in his chest. He didn´t like this thought for some point. When she had come to the MWPSB as an Inspector, Natsumi had been the seventeen-year-old girl Kogami had remembered. But the tone in her voice when she had replied to him earlier let him wonder how long her usual cheerful self would last. He clenched his fists. _Makishima Shogo ‒ what have you done?_

Kogami heard how the door behind him opened. Ginoza stepped out of the laboratory.

"You let her _leave_?" he asked in confusion. What a nice greeting.

Kogami shrugged and Ginoza stared at him.

"Didn´t you _freak out_? Karanomori just showed me the recordings from the camera up there." ‒ he pointed at a little camera attached to the ceiling ‒ "Full ten minutes of you trying to kill her door. Why didn´t you just come in? Have you forgotten how to open a door?"

He didn´t want to answer his questions, so he just ignored him.

"Did her Psycho-Pass really stay stable?" he asked and didn´t look at Ginoza. Suddenly this wall opposite of him had become really interesting...

Ginoza sighed. "Yes. It was impressive. Her Psycho-Pass was _twelve_ when Karanomori measured it. And her Hue was in a pale blue colour."

"_I was told that Mitsuru had died and saw his corpse and _nothing happens_."_

He remembered her face when she had said those words. She had been afraid of herself ‒ had she been afraid today too? Suddenly he thought that it had been wrong to just let her go. Probably Natsumi needed company as badly as never. Kogami ground his teeth. Whatever part of him had hindered him earlier, he hated it with all his power.

"Did she say why she hadn´t used the Dominator on Makishima?" he asked further.

"Inspector Sekimoto said something really irritating: she meant that she hadn´t been able to shoot Makishima Shogo because the Dominator had said that he wasn´t a target of enforcement action. His Psycho-Pass was crystal clear, pure white."

With this words Kogami whirled around and stared at his friend, not believing what he had said right now. His thoughts overlapped and rearranged themselves in his mind, mixed up and caused chaos and suddenly he felt terribly sick.

"_I was told that Mitsuru had died and saw his corpse and _nothing happens_."_

"_The Dominator had said that he wasn´t a target of enforcement action."_

"_My Psycho-Pass never rises. My Hue never clouds."_

"_His Psycho-Pass was crystal clear, pure white.."_

"Nothing happens_."_

* * *

**The quote is from Jess Rothenbergs "The Catastrophic History of You and Me."**

**I hope you liked this chapter! (And I didn't mess up... )**

**Momo**

_**\- currently writing and writing...**_


	18. Torn Apart

**I don't think there are enough words to describe how sorry I am. I wanted to upload more regularly and what happened? School ate up my time.**

**I'm so sorry, I didn't want this to happen.**

**And even if it took _ages_ to upload, I hope you still will enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen:**

**Torn Apart**

* * *

_"Maybe, no matter how much you loved them, they could slip through your fingers like water, and there was nothing you could do about it."_

* * *

December 2112

* * *

Sekimoto Natsumi never liked hospitals. She never liked the smell of hospitals, the white corridors and the bright light. She looked to the ground while she waited for someone to appear at the reception. The ground was so clean, you could even see your own reflection in it.

For her hospitals had always looked kind of... strange. Everything was white and bright, even the clothes of the nurses and doctors ‒ except the ones of the surgeons as they were of a horrible green tone. But then you didn´t see surgeons very often. Hospitals with their artificially clean air and the exaggerated brightness had always seemed kind of surreal for Natsumi. She didn´t like it when something was too artificial.

A nurse came to the reception and asked her who she was and whom she wanted to see. Natsumi answered him politely and showed him her ID card as she had to prove the accuracy of her words. The male nurse´s eyes widened when he realised that she was an Inspector of the MWPSB. He asked her a few things about her job which she answered, before she finally got back to the reason why she came here in the first place. Natsumi told him whom she wanted to visit. The nurse frowned and told her the person she intended to visit hadn´t had a visit in years. She nodded and he brought her to the right sick room. She thanked him and he went away. For a while she looked after him, making sure that he was far enough away.

Natsumi closed the door behind her. She had said to the male nurse that she wanted the room´s cameras to be turned off. Also, she didn´t want him to report this visit. He had been a bit confused but then she had said it was all for the sake of an investigation, and then he had nodded, even if it still seemed like he had no clue.

She sat down on a chair next to the bed. And for a moment the only source of sound was the silent, regular "beep" of Kirino Toko´s medical machines.

Then, Natsumi finally spoke. "It´s been a long time since we were together, hasn´t it, Toko?"

Her hand shook when she reached out and took Toko´s hand. It was warm and when her hand´s heat ran over her skin, numbness filled Natsumi. One of her best friends in the world laid in a horrible sick bed of a terrible hospital, attached to machines who kept her living, even if she was damned to stay in this dreadful state forever. Natsumi had done some research, after she had been able to recall almost every piece of her past, and found out what had happened to Toko: she had witnessed the murder of her father ‒ human rights lawyer Abele Altoromagi, the third victim of the original Specimen Case ‒ but during her escape from the scene of the crime, Toko was caught and when the MWPSB finally found her it had been too late. Someone had injected her something which caused a brain damage, which didn´t kill her but left her unable to communicate or perceive her surroundings.

They had been separated so suddenly, Natsumi wondered what Toko had thought when she didn´t appear for classes anymore, and now the time had come to have a happy reunion and say everything which was three years overdue. But nowadays nothing was truly happy anymore and everything Natsumi would say to Toko now would never reach her.

She could apologise as often as she wanted, it wouldn´t matter. Finally, she had found her friend, her schoolmate, her fellow troublemaker, but... it didn´t matter if Natsumi sat right next to her, it didn´t matter if Natsumi would speak as loud as she could ‒ Toko would never understand her words.

Natsumi took a deep breath. "I´m not sure if you remember me... but... I´m Akane. Niizaki Akane. We went to school together, not in the same class, but to the same school. I now go by another name. It´s Sekimoto Natsumi."

She tightened her grip around Toko´s hand.

"I don´t know where to start. I have so many things so say, so many things have happened in the last days. It´s scary. And it´s even scarier if you consider the fact that in those days quite a lot has changed for me." She chuckled bitterly. "But hey, that´s life, isn´t it? It changes all the time, sometimes in a good way and sometimes in a bad way. Life is a roller-coaster drive, full of ups and downs, which you have to do blindfolded as you shouldn´t see the future. And every time you think that everything´s okay now, because the drive didn´t have any major downs lately, something big and horrible comes and suddenly you drive with a ridiculous speed along a path which goes down completely vertical."

Natsumi stopped talking for a while.

"Five days ago, I met Ma... I mean my brother, Shibata Yukimori. You know. The art teacher," she picked up again. "I... the day we lost sight of each other, Toko, the same happened to Shibata and me. I´m twenty years old now, Toko. I haven´t seen you or him in over three years. In those years I have lived a life built on questions. Back then, I have lost my memories, Toko, and was sent back to society after a while with a brand new identity and no clue which kind of person I had been. Who I had been. While I wondered what happened and asked myself all these questions about myself and my past, questions I thought I would never get answered, I lived a pretty nice and happy life. I went to school, made friends, laughed, graduated, had a nice time, smiled all the day, got a job ‒ and sometimes I forgot my questions, forgot the fact that I was actually someone entirely different. But when I reluctantly left my past behind and started anew, I left quite the chaos on this path. Our teachers always called you a troublemaker, but in the end, I think I was more of a troublemaker than you."

Again, a pause. The machines continued their steady beeping and the light shone in a sick white colour through the room.

"I´m sorry for having left so abruptly. I didn´t mean to. I guess you were angry, right? That I just vanished. I´m so sorry about that, Toko. My brother told me that I ran away from home the day I vanished. My memories from my childhood are still blurry and because, you know, 'life is a cruel traitor,' the ones from the day I lost them, are too. And of the time just before it. But I´m certain that I just need some more days, so I just have to rely on the things Shibata told me. However, I ran away on that day because my brother and me... we... we had a fight. I was angry and ran away, right towards the city.

"Can you remember the times I told you that I couldn´t go with you to the city? All the times when you were always annoyed at the fact that I couldn´t tell you why? And didn´t except the answers I gave you? Now I will tell you."

Natsumi braced herself and took a deep breath. And when she continued speaking, she spoke lower, fearing that anybody could hear her, although she had told the nurse to turn off the cameras.

"Toko... My brother and I... we share a secret. We can´t be judged by Sibyl. We can control our Psycho-Passes. We are the exceptions. I would love to tell anyone everything I´m just telling you, but I _can´t_. I can´t tell my friends because I don´t want them to be dragged into this mess. I can´t tell anyone because I don´t have anyone left. My colleagues... I´m an Inspector now... I want to trust them but Shibata means that they can´t be trusted. What if they hand me over to Sibyl in the moment I tell them that I remembered so much?

"When I ran right into Tokyo that day I completely forgot the fact that my strange ability makes me highly dangerous for Sibyl. I just wanted to go away, I guess. Go as far as I could. And during my little trip I got arrested by the MWPSB because Sibyl told them to do this. This didn´t happen because they already knew what I was able to do, but because they got suspicious at me the moment I entered the city. When I was ten years old, my parents died and I didn´t have anyone left. Shibata found me one day on the streets, all shivering and scared, and he told me I didn´t have to be scared and that he would give me a home and care for me. I have no idea why I followed him on that day but I guess that I was just too desperate not to take such an offer, also there was always something of Shibata which told me that I could trust him. That he would never hurt me. That I didn´t have to worry. However, when I moved in with Shibata ‒ he isn´t my real brother but I guess you already know this by now ‒ and the MWPSB couldn´t find me, they put my files under the files of all the deceased people of Japan, so I became legally dead. And when I entered Tokyo again, seven years later, the scanners found me and it was like a ghost had come back and now started haunting the city, so I was tracked down and arrested. Shibata means they found out during this time I was arrested what I could do and made me lose my memories and 'coincidentally' put me together with the MWPSB to test me how good my detective skills were. When they found out that I wasn´t useless, they let me alive but watched me carefully, so I couldn´t find out about my ability and try doing anything against the System. Also, they thought that, because I could have never lived on my own for seven years, that I would most likely have lived with other people of my kind. So I was also a key for luring out the ones I lived with when they found out I was still alive. But Shibata never did, so Sibyl couldn´t catch him too."

She lowered her head.

"All the years when I walked around, always dreaming of working for the MWPSB´s CID because I believed they saved me and helped me because of their good personalities, Shibata thought that I was dead. I was his emotional chain. I was the only thing who stopped him doing cruel things. During his childhood he was always excluded and experienced horrible things. All those things grew into a tendency to commit crimes. I was the only person preventing such things to happen. Sometimes Shibata thought about and said cruel things, but I could always convince him never to turn them into reality. But after my reluctant leave... there wasn´t anybody anymore who could stop him. Also, his anger towards Sibyl grew and grew afterwards. It became even worse as he thought they had killed me. And now he´s a murderer, the mastermind of so many crimes from the past."

Natsumi swallowed and tightened her grip a little bit more.

"For example of the crime from three years ago, the Specimen Case. The crime which is the reason you´re in this horrible state right now, Toko. Shibata helped the culprit committing murder and turning his victims into sculptures. Because of him, so many people died, so many people were hurt. Mitsuru died... You´re barely awake...

"I told you that I´m an Inspector now, earlier. One month ago, we were handling a case about some person killing the creators of famous CommuField avatars and stealing their identities. During this case some old classmate of mine died. Shibata also helped some worker of a construction company killing his fellow colleagues who were making fun of him. And he helped some schoolgirl to continue this gruesome artwork. Shibata is responsible of so many deaths and losses right now and probably he won´t be able to stop anymore. I wish he would just stop, as he now knows that I´m alive. But I don´t know. I just don´t know if I will be able to stop him anymore. To bring back the person he once was. And when I think about how much he changed after I decided to run away and ruin everyone´s life, I wonder if I had been able to prevent all those crimes to happen, would I have stayed at home that day. If I had been able to keep you and Mitsuru and Sugawara and all the other people safe, would I have decided otherwise on that fateful day.

"If it was, in fact, all my fault that things turned out as they did."

* * *

Fine and delicate snowflakes rained upon her as she stood before the medical facility, uncertain if she should go in or leave.

Who could have guessed that worlds could shatter within five days? Breaking apart and blown away by the wind, impossible to be put together again ‒ left all lost for everyone. Just one hour ago, Natsumi had left the hospital where Toko laid, and now she was standing in front of some medical facility again. But this time it was different.

Funahara Yuki´s Hue had become clouded and her Psycho-Pass had risen after the turnaround event of five days ago, but ‒ to everyone´s great relief ‒ it only went up to a few points over one hundred and it was already going back again. And even if Yuki was never hurt and damaged forever, Natsumi didn´t know if she would want to see her. And if she herself would be able to face her. Yuki had had to go through such a horrible thing just because of her. Makishima had done all those things not only to punish Kogami, but to lure her out, so he would be able to talk to her.

Natsumi closed her eyes, slowing counting from twenty backwards, and then she opened them again, taking a deep break and walking towards the facility´s entrance. She felt uneasy with every step but Minase Kaori had called her this morning and asked her to come visiting Yuki too and she had said "yes." She didn´t know why she said "yes" anymore.

And even if she actually didn´t want to visit Yuki, she had promised Kaori that she would. And promises shouldn´t be broken.

* * *

The office felt just empty without her.

Usually, Ginoza would lecture her about not following the rules which would lead into Natsumi lecturing him about his attitude towards the Enforcers and the fact that you just couldn´t live a life without taking decisions on your own, even with a System which took all the decisions and thinking away from you.

Usually, Kagari would chatter with Natsumi when he got bored and she would do a great job, chatting with him while typing her report. Those two could talk over hours and hours over every imaginable topic and, even if Ginoza seemed annoyed of it and told them to be quiet regularly, it was obvious that he was also thankful of those two filling the room with joy and not only with the depressing clicking of the keyboards.

Usually, Natsumi would start to question Masaoka all sorts of questions about the past, causing the old man´s eyes to shine brightly while he answered her questions and she showed great interest in what he was telling.

Usually, she would even get Kunizuka to chat with her while working, asking her numerous questions about music and talking with her about the newest albums, and comparing titles. And even if Kunizuka wasn´t a person of many words, she always became frighteningly passionate when it came to music and was able to talk for hours until she realised what she had just done and suddenly stopped speaking.

Usually, Natsumi would avoid Kogami at work and when she didn´t, she would exchange thoughts about current cases. And on those days, he always realised what the Specimen Case had actually done to them both: it hadn´t even taken a very good friend away from them but created a huge divide between him and Natsumi. A divide they didn´t know they could ever close.

But now, the warm conversations were gone, the joy, the laughter. Suddenly the walls seemed more grey and cold than ever. Suddenly the sound of the keyboards burned in their ears. Suddenly it felt that they were all missing some part of them. And of course, they were.

They were a team ‒ Ginoza, Masaoka, Kagari, Kunizuka, Kogami, Natsumi, even Karanomori. And with one part lost, they would never become complete again.

* * *

The sound of her heels was far too loud in her ears as Natsumi went down the corridor and towards Yuki´s room. Kaori had requested an allowance for visiting her yesterday, as it was usually not allowed to visit people in medical care facilities like this one. But surprisingly, Ginoza had been able to get the request accepted and now they were able to visit her. Kaori had been immensely excited when she had told her this morning about it and Natsumi had just been shocked when Kaori told her who had helped her out. Actually, Ginoza wasn´t the one doing such things.

Natsumi arrived at the sick room and entered it after bracing herself again.

But what she met in there weren´t allegations or angry faces or unwanted questions or shaking heads. What she met in that room were just her two friends, some of her friends for life. Friends who understood everything she said and did. Friends who weren´t angry at her, never were. Friends who would be always there for her, lend shoulders, give tissues.

Friends which she had dragged into danger.

Friends she would never be able to talk about the things which were really bothering her. Things she needed to talk about so badly.

* * *

It was exactly fifteen minutes past five o´clock in the afternoon, when Masaoka stood up from his chair and just wanted to say goodbye to them, as his shift had ended. Just when Kagari let himself fall onto his chair, already sighing, as his shift had just started. Just when Ginoza rolled with his eyes and Kogami himself wanted to stand up, rearrange his tie and go back to his quarters, while wondered where his replacement, Kunizuka, was.

It was exactly fifteen minutes past five o´clock in the afternoon, when all those men stopped in the middle of their actions and sentences and stared at the office´s door.

Surprise and happiness filled the cold office when they saw Sekimoto Natsumi standing in the door.

Kagari was the first one to regain his voice.

"Natsumi-chan?" he said in disbelief, staring at the young woman like the other three men.

For the tiniest part of a second, Kogami thought he saw sadness touching Natsumi´s face before she gave herself to a thin smile. "Hello."

"How are you, Ojou-san? Alright again?" asked Masaoka.

She took a deep breath. "Yeah, I´m fine again. No worries."

Ginoza rearranged his glasses. "What are you doing here, Inspector Sekimoto? I thought you were still off duty."

She nodded slowly. "I still am... but... " She stopped suddenly. During her little pause Kogami examined her thoroughly. She looked paler and thinner than usual which worried him. The dark shadows creeping underneath her eyes didn´t help at all. His mind trailed back to the gruesome thoughts he had some days ago and coldness filled his body.

"I didn´t come here for work, Ginoza-san," Natsumi continued and tried getting her smile a bit wider. "In fact, I came because of you."

Just a moment ago, they were all staring at Natsumi and now they did the same to Ginoza who raised one eyebrow in confusion.

"Because of me?"

She nodded. "Of course, because of you, Ginoza-san. I mean, I have to thank you after all, haven´t I? You got Kaori´s request accepted to visit Yuki. Thank you very much."

Ginoza turned away a bit and rearranged his glasses again. Even if he tried his best to hide it, Kogami saw a bit of his face turning into a rosy red colour.

"I just did it because of Christmas 2109, as you remember. I owed you something and now I don´t owe you anything anymore. I just don´t like it to stay in anyone´s depth."

Kogami raised one eyebrow and he knew that Masaoka and Kagari did the same too. Christmas 2109? What happened in Christmas 2109 between these two? He tried remembering Christmas 2109 and could only think of an exhausting mission he had to do together with Kunizuka and Sasayama. He remembered entering the office together with Sasayama later on that day and the scent of cookies in the air and some game to guess who had baked them. And...

And Natsumi turning out to be the one. Kogami´s belly turned painful flips when he thought about the conversation he had together with Sasayama on that day.

Natsumi smiled again and this time it even looked genuine. "I´m happy that you remember it, Ginoza-san. But still, I thank you a lot for doing this. It was incredibly nice of you."

Her smile faded away.

"And now I think, I should go now."

She just wanted to turn around her heels and leave the office back in greyness when suddenly adrenaline rushed through Kogami´s body and before he could think twice of it, he had already stepped forward and raised his voice.

"Wait, Sekimoto."

Natsumi froze in her action and slowly turned around to face him.

The day this reckless girl had undergone a Memory Scoop, he had been confident to yell at her, but after she had stepped out of Karanomori´s laboratory he had lost this confidence. Seeing her all shattered had taken it from him and he hadn´t been able to involve her into a conversation anymore. And now, seeing her thin and pale and sad and ghost-like, the sudden rush of adrenaline left his body and Kogami didn´t know anymore if he should continue or not. Never in his life he had felt as useless as in those strange moments with Natsumi. And when he spoke, his throat was dry.

"Did you already eat today, Inspector? You don´t look really good. Probably I should take you with me for lunch."

Kogami couldn´t believe that, of all things, he had said those words but now he couldn´t take them back anymore. He silently cursed himself.

Natsumi looked like she couldn´t believe it too, as she blinked and stared at him in shock, before she slowly shook her head.

"You know that you can´t take me anywhere, Kogami-san."

"I do, but, even if I can´t take you to some fancy restaurant, I´m pretty much able to invite you to our cafeteria."

She looked at him for a moment, really thinking about it, and in the end she sighed.

"I´m pretty sure that you will pick me up and carry me all the way to the cafeteria, probably even forcing me to eat, if I refuse, so I don´t have another choice than to say 'yes.'"

Kogami grinned for a little moment, the blink of an eye. Even if she looked dreadful, it was probably a good sign that she was able to speak in such a way.

"Hey, if you go to the cafeteria ‒ can I come with you?" Kagari wanted to know.

Ginoza glared at him through his glasses.

"_You_ had a lot of time to eat _before_ your shift started."

"But I just became hungry!"

"Work for some hours and then you can take a pause," Masaoka said. "Also... don´t you think you should leave those two alone for now? They have a lot to talk about." He turned to Kogami and Natsumi, blinking at them.

"Have fun, you two."

* * *

Probably she should have refused. Definitely she would have found a way to prevent Kogami from picking her up and carrying her to the cafeteria all by himself. Like running away as fast as she could, as she was a good runner. Or like ordering some drone to help her. Or like punching him in the face or something like that. Whatever she would have done, it would have been a better option than to say "yes."

Natsumi had gone to lunch together with Yuki and Kaori a lot of times and still it was new to her that "having lunch together" actually meant "watching somebody eating." Kogami had ordered her some noodle soup ‒ she was surprised that he still knew that she liked noodle dishes the most ‒ and now watched her eating it, taking care that she really did eat.

This reminded her somehow of the months after she had taken Makishima´s hand and had started to live with him. Of the months he had watched her all the time. It was strange to suddenly chain current moments with past ones as she had always thought that her past would be closed forever for her. And now it was more or less a normal thing for her. It was scary.

And even if she had already been watched, even if she had already gone through this ridiculousness, Natsumi still felt uncomfortable that Kogami was watching her carefully.

When she was done, a drone came to pick up her empty bowl and the sticks. She watched it "walking" away. When she turned back to Kogami, his arms were crossed in front of his chest.

"You know that we need to talk, don´t you?"

Natsumi sighed. She knew that she didn´t have a choice anymore. She already prevented this conversation to happen far too often and now it seemed that she wouldn´t have the opportunity to do this anymore.

"Very well. But... but let´s talk about it somewhere else."

* * *

Opposite the MWPSB Tower was a little park. It wasn´t as beautiful and big as the one Natsumi and Kogami used to visit together with Sasayama. It was more grey and bleak, even if it was mostly built with holograms. Sitting on one of its benches made someone feel strangely depressed, so nobody went there and so they wouldn´t be interrupted while they talked or nobody would eavesdrop their conversation.

Natsumi looked up to the sky, it was grey with white spots all over it. It wasn´t snowing and it wasn´t really cold either. Christmas Eve had passed just five days ago and the last Christmas products were on sale and everything was beginning to be normal again. Decoration vanished, holographic trees were turned off. Unwanted gifts were exchanged.

In the last years, Natsumi had spent Christmas together with Kaori and Yuki and always had a happy time with them, but this year the feeling of Christmas didn´t touch her, didn´t even look at her. There hadn´t been anything merry or fine.

And while Natsumi looked up the sky, wondering when she should speak up, get this conversation finally started, Kogami surprisingly raised his voice, although he had been uncertain what to say, how to start just a moment before too.

"You´re not smiling anymore," he said and she flinched, not taking her gaze off the sky.

"I know," she answered with a low voice, swallowing before she continued. "I wonder what Sasayama would think of me now. I´m not the person he used to know anymore. I´m not the person anybody used to know anymore."

"He would still love you," Kogami said just after she had finished her sentence. Natsumi stopped staring at the sky and now started staring at Kogami. She couldn´t believe what he just had said. But while she looked at him now, he just looked ahead, this eyes seeming somewhat absent. And when he spoke, his voice was rough.

"Sasayama loved you endlessly. He would have died for you. And even if you have changed, he would still love you. He spoke of you every day after the goodbye. He always wanted to visit you because he had missed you so much. We never had time to visit you. One time I promised Sasayama that we would visit you after finishing our current case ‒ I´m still incredibly sorry that I couldn´t hold this promise. And whenever you don´t know if someone loves you, you should always remember that Sasayama did it with all his heart. For him you were never just a replacement for his deceased sister. He´s always seen you as his second little sister ‒ as he always had two and not only one. You were and are one his most important persons."

After all the trouble of the past days, Natsumi had thought she wouldn´t be able to cry anymore. That she had already spent all her tears. But listening to Kogami´s words brought them back, flowing down her cheeks in two little rivers.

She knew that she should be cautious, that there was still the possibility of Makishima being right with everything, with Kogami and Sasayama and the others never having been her friends. But when Kogami had spoken those words, Natsumi instinctively knew that he was honest with them, that he meant every word with all his heart. That those words, even if right and wrong had been mixed up horribly lately, were as right as the sky was endless.

"I had no idea that you´re so sensitive, Kogami-san," Natsumi whispered, whipping away her tears with the back of her hand.

Kogami shrugged. "I have no idea where this came from."

He turned towards Natsumi, looking frighteningly serious all of sudden.

"I´m here to _protect_ you, Sekimoto. Sasayama isn´t here anymore and now I´ve followed in his footsteps. I know that you somehow figured out how to manipulate Shion´s doors. That you came to the office just after my shift ended. You did all those things because you knew that I would never allow you to do a Memory Scoop. I mean, your decision was completely _insane_. The chances of damaging your Psycho-Pass through doing a Memory Scoop forever is immensely high. What the hell let you think that you could do it?"

She clutched her hands together, looking down her lap. "My Psycho-Pass was always stable."

"But that doesn´t already mean that you would have survived it!"

"I wanted to try it," Natsumi whispered.

"You wanted to try it? What would you have done if you had failed?"

"I would have lived with it."

"What... You can´t be serious with that! You would have become a latent criminal if something had happened! You couldn´t possibly want this!" he yelled and Natsumi looked up, her gaze steely.

"Don´t yell at me about this, Kogami-san," she spit out. "Even if something had happened, it would have been okay. The only thing which mattered at that moment was getting a picture of Makishima Shogo. Nothing else. I would have gladly given up my freedom to save people. To do my job. And I think you should know this the best."

Silence fell over them and for minutes, probably even a hour, the only sound in the park was the swoosh of the leaves and the howl of the wind.

"You never spoke about the day you met Makishima," Kogami suddenly said, breaking the silence apart. "Nobody actually knows what happened that day, but we all know that something horrible had occurred from the way you started to act afterwards." His grey eyes flared up. "I told you that I´m here to protect you. You´re my superior and after all the things which had happened, I´m also owing this to Sasayama. It´s my duty to keep you save and make sure that you´re okay. I know that something is wrong. I´m as much of a detective as you are. I just want to know what Makishima said to you on that day. I want to know what shattered you, because when I don´t know it, I can´t help you. And then I can´t fulfill my duty. Also, it´s not really healthy keeping such a thing all by yourself. So... I´m hearing?"

"Do you really want to know this?" she asked, putting her hands on her laps and lowering her voice.

"I want to know everything, Inspector," he answered and Natsumi didn´t need to look up to know that his eyes were shining with honesty.

She closed her eyes.

"The day I met Makishima, everything changed for me. When I heard his name before that day, I only got headaches, but when I met him... I was able to remember something."

"What? You... "

She opened her eyes, looking up and realising that Kogami stared at her, his eyes as wide as never. Natsumi nodded. "There are still gaps I have to fill. Incredibly important gaps, but I´m working on it. Also, I can remember the most parts of my past."

"That´s everything you always wanted," he said dryly and something in his voice made her flinch all of sudden.

"I was able to remember," she whispered in a tone which told that she still couldn´t believe it herself. "But when I think about it, probably I was wrong. I thought I could only be truly happy again if I remembered. But now look at me. I do and I´m feeling horrible. I was a horrible person, Kogami-san. And still a big part of this person I used to be _is_ me. I can´t just erase the things I´ve done. I know that you would want to say that my past doesn´t matter, that I´m still me and the nice person you know. But I have to say that the past _does_ matter and that I never really was the person you knew. 'Sekimoto Natsumi' is just a placeholder, a ghost, not a real existing person. It´s just the name of an individual pretending to be someone else, someone she never was."

"Is this the real reason why you underwent the Memory Scoop?" Kogami wanted to know. "That you wanted to redeem your past? Even if your Psycho-Pass is low and this fact is probably a bit terrifying, there´s no chance for you to know that you could survive such a thing. And still, you did it because... because it didn´t matter to you if something would happen. You only wanted this picture. Because you wanted to make up your past."

Natsumi smirked. "I wanted to atone my crimes."

When Kogami raised his voice anew, it sounded strange in her ears. Probably even strange to himself. "You said you remembered your past when you met Makishima... That you want to redeem your past. _That you wanted to atone your crimes_." And when his gaze meet hers, she saw tiredness in his grey eyes. Tiredness and... sadness? She didn´t know.

"You were Makishima´s accomplice," Kogami whispered, his voice sounding dry and leached out as he didn´t want this to be true from the bottom of his heart. Heat filled Natsumi´s stomach at this thought.

"I wasn´t really his accomplice," she corrected quietly. "I was... No, I never was his accomplice. I was just in a position to stop him from committing any crimes. I knew what he was doing and probably if I had the strength and the power to struggle even more, I would have been able to stop him from killing people. All those persons died because of my inability to stop him, because of my stupidity." She stopped for a moment. "Probably I´m not as nice and pure as people thought."

"Don´t say such things," Kogami said out of the blue, letting Natsumi flinch.

"Don´t say such things," he repeated and his eyes were suddenly steely. "Even if you did know about Makishima´s plans, you didn´t help committing his crimes. Of course, you could have said something to the MWPSB or done something on your own, and probably you did. You said that there are 'incredibly important gaps' in your memory and I think you were referring to the time right before your lose of memories, right? As you said, your memory isn´t complete right now. Some parts in the puzzle of your head are still missing, so we can´t be absolutely sure that you didn´t do anything. Probably you did. Probably you tried. Probably something happened before you could do anything against Makishima. We don´t know. The truth lies all by yourself. And before you remember everything, before the puzzle´s complete, before we know the detailed circumstances, we can´t administer judgement. And now... tell me: why do you think that you need to atone anything? As I see it, you don´t need to atone anything. As we know it, you didn´t do anything wrong you could atone.

"Can you remember the day Spooky Boogie, your former classmate Sugawara Shoko, was killed? You gave yourself the fault for it and back then I already told you that you weren´t in any way guilty. I told you that the responsibility of her death doesn´t only lay upon you, but also on the rest of us. We are a team and we are detectives. It´s our duty to catch criminals. And sometimes detectives don´t come at the right time. It´s a responsibility we decided to take, a responsibility we all shoulder. Just because you knew Sugawara personally or because she decided to help us because of you or because you knew a little information more than us, doesn´t make you automatically more responsible for everything. We are a team and we work together to catch culprits and when we fail, we all fail together. In a team there isn´t anyone more guilty and anyone less, we´re all guilty in the same way. We all shoulder the responsibility for everything together. That´s what makes a team.

"And in 2109, when I found and rescued you, you weren´t one of us. You were just some lost school girl, trying to find her identity, her past. And even if you knew something crucial about Makishima, the responsibility of hunting him down and stop him, didn´t lay to you. It laid to us. As we were the detectives back then. Not you. Even if the actual circumstances are still uncertain, you have to know that we will always stand behind you. As we are a team."

And for the second time today, Natsumi´s eyes were wet of tears, touched by Kogami Shinya´s highly unusual words. She whipped them away with the back of her hand.

"Thank you," she whispered. And for a brief moment she thought, Kogami would reach out and take her hand. But of course, he didn´t do it. He would never do such a thing, wouldn´t he? After all, she was just a little girl.

Nevertheless, this didn´t mean that Kogami´s voice wasn´t sounding soft when he spoke. "You´re welcome, Inspector." A pause. "And don´t expect from me to do more of such things. This was the last one."

She chuckled. "I did expect nothing less, Kogami-san." For a few minutes they sat next to each other, not saying anything, letting his and her words sink into each other, before Natsumi stood up. "I think you need to go back."

Together, they went back to the MWPSB Tower and when Kogami was in, Natsumi turned around, waved him goodbye and was about to go as he asked her one last thing.

"Hey, Sekimoto!"

She stopped and turned back.

"You said that you remembered almost everything. So... did you remember your true name?"

Natsumi smiled sadly. "I do. But I don´t think I will use it that soon again."

Kogami looked down the ground for a moment like the little, shy boy he had never been and would never be, before he formed his next question. "Can you tell me it?"

"Of course." She took a deep breath. "It´s Tsunemori Akane."

* * *

_Tsunemori Akane._

Kogami more or less staggered back into his Enforcer apartment.

_Tsunemori Akane._

Suddenly he felt immensely sick. After she had told him her true name the urgent desire to vomit onto something had started to boil inside him.

Kogami let himself fall onto his couch, the thoughts in his head spun around. He had had so many other things to say to Natsumi, to tell her, but he hadn´t been able to. So many things to make clear, so many revelations to make, so few words to use, so little time to use.

_Tsunemori Akane._

Sasayama had wanted her to be called "Mikoto," he remembered. And Karanomori had suggested "Aoko." Probably, her choice had been the best, the closest.

"Aoko" ‒ "blue child."

"Akane" ‒ "scarlet," "red."

Both were colour themed names.

Kogami had no clue why he had to remember such an unimportant thing right now.

The thoughts in his mind shifted and shifted and pressed the palms of their metaphorical hands against the inner walls of his head, punching against it, trying to break it, causing him to have aches.

Probably Natsumi had felt exactly the same when she heard the name of Makishima Shogo.

Pain pulsed in his temples, and still he didn´t make any attempt to press his fingers against them and massage away the pain. The pain made him feel alive, let him stay awake, let him feel the actual meaning of Natsumi´s words.

"_It´s Tsunemori Akane."_

The pain grew.

Probably from the bottom of his heart he had always known. Probably this was the reason he had asked her this tiny, stupid question in the first place. He had no idea. The only thing Kogami Shinya knew in this minute was that something had fundamentally gone wrong. That Tsunemori Akane should actually be long dead.

And still she had appeared years later in front of him. As a ghost, trying to haunt him. As the ghost he never wanted Natsumi to be.

"_You´re imagining, you´re imagining_,_"_ he had told himself after finding Natsumi. _"You´re imagining. You´re imagining. She´s dead."_

And in the end, Kogami had started to believe those words he had chanted to himself when he thought of seeing someone else in Natsumi´s appearance. Someone he had known a long time ago. Someone he had let go. Someone he had wanted to know better. Wanted to know forever.

Kogami closed his eyes and now the pain behind his temples, all the hammering of those numerous tiny hands, suddenly felt more intense.

_She´s dead._

* * *

August 2109

* * *

_Makishima Shogo thought it would get all normal again when he came back from work._

_He had never been so wrong in his entire life._

_Just when he stepped in front of his entrance door and pulled out the little device to "open" the house again, Shogo saw a man running towards him. He lowered the device and waited for him to arrive next to him. When the man did, he already started to speak._

"_Good that you´re here! I need to tell you something important!" the man blurted out. "I was walking around the city when I couldn´t trust my eyes: your sister, Niizaki, was among the people in the city!"_

_Shogo started at the man. What did he just say? There was no way that Akane was..._

_Ice crystals ran inside his veins when he raised up the device in his hand quickly and pressed the green button. Nothing happened. His eyes didn´t hear the soft "click" which should sound after pressing the green button. The man seemed to have seen Shogo´s frozen gaze as he spoke further._

"_I need to tell you more, Shogo," the man said, his voice suddenly low. Shogo didn´t wonder why. He already assumed the worst. _Akane...

"_I followed her secretly and when she started walking through some less crowded streets, the MWPSB suddenly arrived."_

_No._

"_At first, Niizaki didn´t see them, but then they closed her in before she did. The group, the Division on duty, was led by a man with messy black hair, a dark suit and serious grey eyes. They were glowing a bit because of the Dominator in his hands. They closed her in and before Niizaki could realise the seriousness of the situation... they arrested her. They dragged her into one of those paddy wagons. I tried to help her from the back, but my attempts failed and all I could do was watching her being carried away. I don´t know why she was there, what she was doing in the city when she does know what dangers await her there. I´m terribly sorry of the loss of your sister, Shogo. And I hope you don´t hate me for failing to save her."_

_Something inside Shogo seemed to shatter apart, that his words had just torn his whole world apart._

The MWPSB has arrested Akane. They handed her over to Sibyl.

_Shogo suddenly felt terribly unwell. This morning he had told her so many bad things. They had had a fight and he had imprisoned her in their house. He had thought that she wouldn´t be able to break through this special security function._

_How could he have underestimated her like that? How?_

_They had had a fight and she had been angry at him and he had to admit that he had been angry himself. They had exchanged the worst of words, especially the words _he_ had thrown at Akane had just been horrible._

_And now she was gone._

_Taken away._

_Dead._

_Killed._

_This was the essence of his worst nightmares and it had become truth. Reality._

_Shogo leaned against the door, suddenly he wasn´t able to shoulder his own weight anymore. It was all his fault. If he hadn´t said such gruesome things to her, she wouldn´t have run away in the first place. It was his fault that Sibyl had found her. That she was now dead._

_Of course she was. There was no way Sibyl would let somebody like her stay alive._

_His beautiful, lovely, pure little sister ‒ dead. Dead because of him. Because of his foolishness. His stupidity. His dumbness._

_The only person he had always truly loved in his life was gone, lost forever. And it was nobody´s fault but his._

"After all I have done for you... you think of me in such a way? I have enough of your hormone-ridden thoughts. You´re being stupid. You´re such a stupid girl. You can´t understand anything. I want you to go to your room and not to come out until tomorrow, do you understand? And when you don´t stop with this ridiculousness I have no other choice than to bring you back to the gutter I´ve found you! Sometimes I really wish I have never found you!"

_If Shogo had the power to turn back the time, he would travel back to this morning. But instead of fighting with her, he would wrap his arms around Akane and tell her that he won´t ever let her go. Words he should have told her more often. Actions he should have done more often._

_Things he regretted of not doing as much as he regretted his final words towards Akane. The final words which would have most likely echoed in her head before her death._

_He hated Sibyl more than he ever did in this moment. For killing an innocent girl because of an ability she was born with. He hated the MWPSB for being mere sheep. But of all the things, he hated himself the most._

"I´m Makishima Shogo and you can trust me. I promise."

_Liar._

* * *

**The quote is from "City of Fallen Angels" by Cassandra Clare.**

**Hell, the part with Toko or Shinya and Akane's conversation... I really, really do hope that those parts didn't sound any off or silly or whatever.**

**Actually, I wanted to make this a far shorter chapter. Like 3,000 words or something like that, only containing Shinya's conversation with Akane. But things change. Now it has 8,000 words and I'm certain the next chapter will have nearly 10,000...**

**Next week I will be free of everything (more or less), so I guess... we will see us again in two weeks? Around two weeks? Hopefully a bit earlier for Chapter Sixteen: Chaos Hours.**

**Momo**

_**\- needing to fix things here and there and finally catching up on writing**_


	19. Chaos Hours

**Grr. Okay, no more promises.**

**This chapter is a 10,000 words monster and... absolutely sneaky too. At first it was all like: 5,000 words that will do it. And then: NO. NEED. MORE. WORDS. MORE. WRITING.**

**However, I actually completed it a few weeks ago, even with self-proof-reading, but I totally forgot about it while writing chapter 16.**

**I'm sorry.**

**But, nevertheless, I hope that you guys will like this chapter. And thank you for all your support and reviews and favos and everything. You guys are great and I'm sorry that I can't give you chapters in a regular basis.**

* * *

**Chapter Fifteen:**

**Chaos Hours**

* * *

_"Chaos was the law of nature; Order was the dream of man."_

* * *

January 2113

* * *

The next few months were more quiet. Right after the start of the new year, Natsumi finally came back to the MWPSB after her short rest and even if her return pushed the coldness of the office´s air away, it didn´t heat it up properly again. And even if it seemed that everything was going to be okay again, that everything just needed a bit more time, you couldn´t overlook the fact that something had shattered between the members of Division One.

Natsumi´s friend, Yuki, had been released from the medical facility in February which didn´t only make Natsumi and her other friend, Kaori, happy, but also the members of Division One relieved, because they thought this could help Natsumi to recover too. But even if the release of her friend had lifted her mood, her meeting with Makishima was still laired in her bones.

Division One, of course, still tried to hunt down Makishima Shogo, but it seemed that he had simply vanished, and their hunt stayed unsuccessful. However, they had plenty of other, simpler cases to investigate, so they always stayed busy.

The days passed and Kogami and Natsumi didn´t have any other proper conversation. Of course, they talked, but when they did, they only spoke about their work, cases or simple, trivial things. They didn´t speak about the day, just after the end of Christmas, and avoided themselves as much as possible. Kogami didn´t know why Natsumi avoided him ‒ probably, she still felt guilty, even after everything he had said to her ‒, but he himself avoided her, because after finding out her true name, the way he saw her had changed drastically. When he had found her and brought her to the MWPSB Tower, Kogami had already seen Akane in her actions and in her words, but he had told himself that he was just imagining things, and after a while he had simply stopped associating Natsumi with Akane. But after he had found out that Natsumi _was_, in fact, Akane, he couldn´t even look into her face anymore.

Kogami had no clue why, but he just couldn´t stand her anymore. Of course, he still liked and respected her, but after his demotion to an Enforcer, he had been ashamed of himself, and started to distance himself from her step by step, and now the whole alienation progress was accelerated as he now had other things to be ashamed of. After all he had left little Akane all alone, never called her, never visited her and more or less forgot about her. As a child, he had wanted Akane to be a constant in his life, and when his mother had got a new job in Tokyo and they had to move, Kogami had promised her that he would still call her and would never forget her. But in the years after the move, he hadn´t found any time for it, and in the end, he simply forgot his childhood friend. Many, many years after their goodbye he had finally remembered her ‒ but at that point of time, it had already been too late.

And now she was back, alive and walking around. And every time he saw her, he felt guilty that he had forgotten about her, that he had become an Enforcer and betrayed her once again. She was one of his most important persons and he just kept hurting her.

However, he didn´t even know if _Natsumi_ remembered anything of their shared past. It didn´t seem like she did, as she had never said anything to him and told him her name as it was nothing. She couldn´t remember him, but then she had an excuse. Akane had just been five years old when Kogami had moved to Tokyo after all. And later she had even lost her memories, so the probability that she remembered about it, was quite low.

But even if he could never tell her the absolute truth, even if he avoided her, Kogami would always look after her. After all he didn´t want to break any promises anymore.

"_Kogami? Can you promise me something?"_

* * *

October 2102

* * *

_It was the beginning of October when Kogami Shinya and Ginoza Nobuchika had finally found themselves some spare time to escape the masses of exams and annoying classmates. It was good to finally be free again and to think about something else than exams, or being able to do something else than small talk. It was even a fairly warm day, so they wouldn´t even freeze to death when they went outside._

_Kogami had decided to go to some park with Ginoza, not only because his best friend had to take out the dog he looked after this week, but also because he hadn´t been to any park for quite the long time. He liked nature, and for him it was always a shame that technology and time devoured more and more of the beautiful nature of Japan. In today´s world almost everything was artificial. You could even get a partner through Psycho-Pass and Hue comparisons, so only a few people actually valued true love. Kogami´s mother, Kogami Tomoyo, had never been fond of such reductions of humanity´s traits. You couldn´t make your own decisions, you needed to stay away from every stressful situation, even your feelings were controlled. The best matches were put together to get the best children. Everything was so awfully artificial. And even if his mother could only shake her head at the whole matches thing, Kogami himself liked it more or less. He was far too lazy to find a suitable wife on his own, so the System´s match generator function was quite helpful. After all, he wouldn´t have to worry about that anymore and could focus on more important things._

_And while he liked this aspect, he hated the one about artificial green areas. Most of the parks in Tokyo were made of holograms. The howl of the wind when it brushed against the leaves, the singing of the birds... everything was artificially made. Only some parks were actual parks and Kogami was glad that Ginoza always took "his" dogs to actual ones._

_Ginoza was a huge dog-lover and because his grandmother didn´t want a dog at their home, he went to people who didn´t have that much time for their dogs, and took their dogs out for a walk. He didn´t get much money for it, but Ginoza wasn´t interested in money ‒ the dogs were his first priority._

_Today there weren´t many persons running around the park. Ginoza allowed the dog of the week, Toru, to run around freely as soon as they arrived. Happily, Toru walked around and wagged his tail. Kogami and Ginoza were just about to sit down a bench and watch Toru running around and occasionally bringing them a stick, which they had to throw away for him to bring back, when Kogami heard silent crying from between the trees. He pricked his ears and walked towards the source. With a raised eyebrow, Ginoza followed him and even Toru seemed bewildered as he saw his part-time owner´s friend behaving strangely._

_Kogami arrived by the trees and looked past them. His eyes widened when he saw a little girl sitting behind a little gathering of trees. She was crying and looked heartbreakingly desperate. He stepped further and kneeled next to the girl. She looked up and stared at him when he did. Thankfully, she even stopped crying. The girl had large dark brown eyes and black hair which was plaited into two small pigtails. She wore a dark green dress with colourful flowers and butterflies dancing and whirling over it, a blue jacket over it and boots. Fairly, she looked adorable in those clothes and her round face. Also, she seemed to be around seven or eight years old._

"_Hey, little girl. Did you get lost?"_

_The girl stared at him, her face was wet of tears and it almost looked like she would burst into tears any minute again._

"_I don´t want to hurt you," Kogami said as soft as he could. "I just want to help you, okay? Why were you crying? Did you get lost? Are you searching for your mother and father?"_

_Still the girl didn´t say anything. Ginoza arrived next to Kogami. "What are you doing there, Ko-" He frowned. "Hm? Who´s this?"_

"_A little girl. I think she got lost somehow. I´m just trying to speak to her."_

"_Hopefully, her Hue won´t get very clouded." Ginoza looked around. "Hm... I don´t know if it´s good or bad that this is an area with only a few drones. Also, I can´t see any around the park. What... "_

_He was interrupted when Toru, the dog ran towards them and almost ran the poor Ginoza over. He staggered, but caught himself before he could fall. The little girl giggled and Ginoza scowled. But before he could put the leash back on the dog, Toru walked towards the girl and smelled at her. She giggled again and ruffled through his grey fur._

"_Seems like she likes Toru," Kogami stated._

"_I can see myself, you know," Ginoza said, rolling his eyes._

_The girl kept ruffling Toru´s fur, and he carefully licked her cheek and she giggled again. It looked like Toru wanted to lick away the girl´s tears._

"_What... what is the doggie´s name?" the girl suddenly asked shyly._

_Relieved that she spoke to them, Kogami answered. "Toru. It´s a he."_

"_What kind of dog is he?"_

"_Berger Picard, also known as Picardy Sheperd," Ginoza said, quick as a shot._

_She didn´t seem to mind and just kept petting Toru._

_Kogami cleared his throat. "Why were you crying? Did you get lost?" he asked once again._

_The girl raised her head and looked at him, suddenly her happiness faded away and let sadness take its place. "I´m here with my big brother. He wanted to study and I wanted to go out, and because he likes studying in parks, we went here. But he´s sometimes quite forgetful and went away without taking me with him. You have to know, I was playing behind the trees and the bushes and he was all concentrated on his book while sitting on a bench. But I have never been to this part of the city before and my brother took me here, because this park is close to his university. And now he went away, and I have no idea how I should get back home. As I told you, I don´t know where I am. I have never been here." While telling them her story, it almost looked like she would start crying again, but Toru did a great job keeping her from it._

"_We could help you. We could bring you home. Where do you live?"_

_The girl suddenly blushed and lowered her head. "I don´t know. We have quite the difficult address which made it hard for me to memorise it. Also, I never needed to. When I´m out, I´m always with my parents or my brother and when I´m out alone, I don´t go very far and then I know the path back by heart, without knowing any street names."_

Unfathomable._ "That´s okay," Kogami said, because saying something else or even sighing would most likely cause the girl to panic or cry. "We can take you to the MWPSB, okay? We bring you to the detectives. They can find out through your name where you live and bring you back home, okay?"_

_The girl´s face lit up and it was relieving to see her all happy and hopeful. "That would be great. Thanks... " Helplessly, she looked at Ginoza and Kogami._

"_I´m Kogami Shinya and this is Ginoza Nobuchika," he helped her out, grinning._

_She nodded quickly. "Thanks, Kogami-san. Thanks, Ginoza-san."_

"_You´re welcome... "_

"_Aki," she said and this time it was her turn to grin. But Kogami couldn´t return it as something made "click" in his head and he started remembering something blurry. He frowned. _Aki...

"_Your name is Aki?" he asked to be absolutely sure that his ears hadn´t tricked him._

_She nodded slowly. "Yes. It´s short for 'Akiho.' I´m actually Kashiwazaki Akiho." Now she frowned too. "Is anything wrong with my name, Kogami-san?"_

_Kogami shook his head and scratched it. "No, it´s just... I think I once knew somebody named 'Aki.' I mean 'is named.'"_

_Kashiwazaki Akiho stood up and they walked together to the MWPSB Tower. She had Toru´s leash in her hand and looked quite happy about the fact that she could walk a dog. Ginoza didn´t seem happy, he looked more nervous as he probably feared that the girl could kill Toru or lose him and then he would have to tell Toru´s owners that their beloved dog was gone._

"_Your friend, Aki, is she nice?" Akiho suddenly asked while walking._

"_Hm?" Kogami made, surprised by the question. "Oh... If I´m honest, I can´t really remember her. We were friends and she was... if I´m right... around eight years younger than me."_

"_Eight years?!" Ginoza said, raising an eyebrow. "When did you meet this girl?"_

"_When she was... three? Four? Something like that."_

"_You befriended a _baby_?!"_

"_Toddler," Kogami corrected. "And yes, I did. But she was... special. She was quite smart for her age and we were friends for two years or something like that and then my mother got a new job and we had to move and we weren´t able to see each other anymore."_

Aki._ While speaking of her, he suddenly remembered things of his childhood which he almost forgot. A little girl, bright and nice with a bad leg but full of joy. She laughed and walked as fast as she could to be on the same level as Kogami. He remembered long summer days, he had spent with her at some river, their feet hanging into the water, and cold winter days, they had spent drinking hot chocolate. But he didn´t also remember Aki and all those things, but also Ichinose Sho. His best friend before meeting Ginoza. His best friend before both of them had to move, leaving Aki all alone. He wondered what had happened to them in the last five years._

_Kogami couldn´t believe that he had almost forgotten about those two. They had been so important to him once and now he didn´t even know what they were doing. Aki should have started school by now and Sho was most likely in high school too. Of course, if he hadn´t skipped any school years again._

"_It seems like you two were quite good friends despite the age difference," Akiho said and Kogami silently thanked her to have reminded him of Sho and Aki, even if it made him feel guilty that he hadn´t contacted them in all those years. But then Sho hadn´t done such a thing too. Nobody could possibly blame Aki for not contacting them. She had only been five years old when they had left her. It would be a miracle if she could still remember their faces._

"_And I think, you should visit her. Even if she can´t remember you, it would be nice visiting her again, right? You haven´t seen each other for a while, I guess, so it´s time for a little reunion, right?"_

_Kogami slowly shook his head. "She lives in Chiba. She has school, I have school. I don´t know if we have any time for something like that."_

"_You could visit her during a weekend," Ginoza suggested and Kogami was surprised that he was agreeing with Akiho. "We´re free for a while now and when she´s eight years younger than you, she would be still in primary school, which means that she has plenty of time."_

* * *

The quiet time ended when Ito Junmei ‒ a simple man, a simple latent criminal who got the opportunity, in the form of an ominous helmet, to commit crimes, without being able to be judged by the Sibyl System properly ‒ broke into a pharmacy, killed several clerks and stole some medicine. Later, he even killed a woman in the middle of the city.

They were able to hunt him down and to find a way to outwit the function of the helmet, making it able to use the Lethal Eliminator of the Dominator on him anyway.

But the case around Ito Junmei had just set the ball rolling, as videos of the woman being attacked in the middle of the city appeared everywhere and people started to panic about it ‒ _"If we go out, we´ll be killed." _‒_ "Does this mean that it´s dangerous no matter where you are?"_ And the little ball turned into a landslide when great amounts of helmets fell into the hands of several latent criminals.

And suddenly, every normal citizen could commit crimes without caring about things like "Psycho-Pass" or "Hue."

Suddenly, everyone was free to do everything they wanted right before Sibyl´s eyes and it wasn´t a lovely view: people were killed in the middle of a crowded place in horrible ways, others were robbed in their own homes, drones were destroyed, places set on fire, even people were burned alive ‒ not helmet-wearers eventually snapped and murdered helmet-wearers brutally.

The town was devoured by chaos and somewhere the mastermind behind all of this hid well and laughed at this little apocalypse.

During Chief Kasei Joshu´s briefing with all three Division´s of the Criminal Investigation Department, Kogami looked at Natsumi from time to time. Her big brown eyes looked serious and her face a little bit distressed. It was obvious for him what she thought about this whole matter. And when they split into groups, Kogami was teamed with Natsumi and Kagari.

"Makishima Shogo... He´s really done it this time," Kogami said while they got ready, put armour on and picked their weapons.

And probably he shouldn´t have said that aloud.

He could see Natsumi flinching from the corner of his eye. "Hold on a second." She stopped putting on her armour, the dark blue waistcoat, and turned towards him and Kagari, who had crossed his arms behind his head.

"We still haven´t found conclusive evidence that shows that Makishima has something to do with this helmet crime," she replied. He wasn´t sure if she just played the role of an unknowing person or if she really wanted to believe that Makishima wasn´t the one behind this chaos. That, for once, someone else was responsible for such a crime.

So she wouldn´t have to consider that there could be the possibility, that she was somewhat responsible for this tragedy too. Even if they had already talked about this.

Or, he wondered, was there another reason behind the silent hope of her words?

"Think about it," Kogami told her, probably shattering every tiny piece of her hope that Makishima wasn´t the culprit this time, while they finished getting their armour and weapons and walked towards the car.

"The moment an ordinary person thinks of making equipment that makes the Sibyl System invalid, their Hue would get clouded. But this guy designed it, mass produced it, and distributed it. It probably took him at least several months to prepare for it. Ordering parts, arranging for circulation... You can´t do those things while avoiding the scanners throughout town. Only someone who can confront the Sibyl System without wearing the helmet can make that helmet."

_Only people like Makishima who seem to be able to _control_ their Psycho-Passes at will, for everyone´s sake, were able to do such a thing_, Kogami thought, and didn´t allow his mind to wander to the little, dark thought he had months ago.

The little, dark fear.

Natsumi looked at him for a moment, her face showing some kind of mixed, strange feeling Kogami couldn´t clearly classify. And then she looked away and through the car´s window.

"I see," she said dryly. And there was something strange in the tone of her voice...

Kagari leaned forward as he sat down on the back seat.

"A mass psycho-hazard that takes advantage of a blind spot in the Sibyl System... So that´s Makishima´s goal?"

"No... ," Natsumi replied without taking her eyes off the window. Kogami could only see her serious face in the reflection.

"What?" Kagari said, craning his head towards her.

"Because it seemed he was always trying to find answers through his crimes. This is a terrible riot, but it´s hard to think that this chaos is his only goal," she continued, her voice still sounding dry and bitter.

Kogami raised one of his eyebrows only a bit, so it was barely noticeable. He now knew that she had known Makishima at one point, and had even found herself in a position to prevent the Specimen Case to happen. Still, he just couldn´t push away the weird feeling that there was still something left which she hadn´t told him.

Some little detail she hadn´t entrusted him already. And he just couldn´t imagine what this could be.

"I agree with you, Inspector. If he was a criminal who´d find enjoyment in watching a riot like this, we could arrest him more easily," Kogami said and when Natsumi answered him, her voice sounded bitter again.

"He _does_ find enjoyment in it. But for him things aren´t only about enjoyment, but about purpose."

* * *

Funahara Yuki ‒ twenty years old, single, therapist trainer, on the run.

One month ago, she had been released from the medical care facility, after she had been kidnapped on Christmas. She wholeheartedly thought that now everything would be normal again.

Probably, she had never been more wrong in her entire life.

Yuki had just brought some little cakes, fine, delicate muffins in every shape and colour, and with various kinds of decoration gracing them, because she would meet with Kaori and Natsumi when the two of them would have finished working. Humming joyfully, she had walked in and out of the muffin shop and headed straight back home, only to be faced by total chaos.

All of sudden, the town had been pulled towards the edge: people with helmets walked through the town, killing and robbing others, destroying the city, burning down buildings and humans, devouring every feel of safety the citizens of Tokyo had built during the years with Sibyl. It was horrible.

She had just walked some blocks, when she saw a man cutting through a woman´s throat with a circular saw at the other end of the street. Sickness filled Yuki´s body and coldness rushed over her. She saw blood running out of the woman´s body and her very last, choked scream before her body became limp, and Yuki herself was incapable of doing anything. Frozen in place, she watched the terrifying scene. The man with the helmet searched through the woman´s clothes and bag for money and other articles of value. After he was done, he stood up and to Yuki´s absolute horror, the man looked right into her eyes.

She wondered if the man smirked under the helmet.

He walked towards her and panic rushed through her veins. _Focus_, she told herself. _Focus, Yuki, and for everyone´s sake ‒ run!_

Somehow, she managed to break herself free from her numbness and commanded her legs to move again. Yuki ran as fast as she could, and she was very glad that she had always been brilliant in sports, even if the Sibyl hadn´t appreciated it back then.

Adrenaline pulsed in her blood as Yuki ran through the streets. _I need to get back home. I need to get back home. I need to get back home._ She didn´t even notice that she had drilled her fingers into the delicate muffin package. Only once, only once she allowed herself to look back. For less than a second, relief fell over her when she noticed that the man, who had cut this woman´s throat, was nowhere to be seen. Probably he hadn´t been in the mood to run after his prey, probably he had found someone easier to catch. But that didn´t mean that she was safe now.

_I need to get back home and barricade it._

Yuki was born in Tokyo, she had lived in Tokyo her entire life, she knew every corner, every side street, every short-cut. And she had never been so happy about this than in this very moment.

She ran and ducked behind some building, whose windows had been shattered, to look if some of those helmet-wearing maniacs were around. If she was sure that nobody was there, that she could safely run further, she hurried through the streets again. Her mind drifted to her parents and Kaori ‒ had they been able to find themselves a fine and safe place to hide? Then, her mind drifted from her parents and Kaori to Natsumi, and suddenly Yuki realised that of all people she knew and valued, Natsumi was the one who was probably even more in danger than she or any other civilian here was. While she and the others were evacuated by the police, Natsumi _belonged_ to the police. She couldn´t just hide in some container in a side street and hope that nobody would find her. She had to risk her life to end this insanity.

And suddenly, Yuki _really_ understood how hard and difficult and _dangerous_ Natsumi´s job was. All their teasing, Yuki´s and Kaori´s teasing ... all their jokes... all the times they had told her how _happy_ she could be that she had such a well-paid job. How couldn´t they have understood, how hard her life actually was? _How?_

Of course, when she had been kidnapped in December, she had already been able to glimpse at Natsumi´s dangerous work, but back then, she hadn´t seen much of the actual fighting, of the actual destruction. This colleague of Natsumi, this Enforcer ‒ what Yuki had found out afterwards ‒, Kogami Shinya, had managed to keep her out of this as good as he could. And when he had been shot and she dragged away, she had lost consciousness a while later.

She hadn´t even asked Natsumi afterwards about her confrontation with Makishima Shogo. Yuki had gained consciousness after everything had been over, and had been brought to the ambulance right away. She had only been able to take a single glimpse of Natsumi on that day, before she had been brought to the hospital and later the Rehabilitation Center. She _had_ seen Natsumi sitting on a wheelchair, but her stay in the Rehabilitation Center had made her forget everything.

How could she have forgotten to be there for her best friend, when Natsumi had been with her in the medical facility as regularly as possible? How could she have forgotten about such an important thing?

Natsumi had blamed herself for the whole kidnapping, but Yuki had assured her so often that she didn´t have to. That it had never been her fault. And still, Yuki had seen the aching darkness in her friend´s eyes ‒ but never she had asked about the confrontation, why she thought that she was guilty for everything, why she just couldn´t be happy again when she, Yuki, and the others had managed to continue their lives again?

Yuki had _known_ that there was something else which was bothering Natsumi, something more fundamental. And why had she never _asked_ about it? Why had she ignored her friend´s worries unconsciously?

While she walked through an alley of burning cars, she hoped that Natsumi was okay. And if Natsumi and Kaori and everyone else and Yuki herself lived through this insanity, she would definitely hug Natsumi, and ask Kaori if she could help her fixing Natsumi.

After all, they were friends. After all, she had always promised her, that she would be there for her. After all, Natsumi had never disappointed or betrayed or hurt any of them. She had helped them through their darkest times. And now it would be their turn to help _her_.

Yuki just entered the street where she lived in, and was about to walk towards her apartment building and rush upstairs to her flat, when for a moment, a fine little moment, she lost all her carefulness and didn´t look around the corner for the first time in the last few hours.

And a fine little moment later, an axe swung down on her, broke through her clothes, her thin skin, broke her spine, her ribs, her lungs ‒ and an immense amount of blood splashed onto the package with muffins, Yuki had brought for her meeting with Kaori and Natsumi. The package she had never let go until now.

* * *

_The wind wa__s howling and ruffling through his thick, black hair as he walked through the streets. He recognised the houses, the buildings, the people... He hadn´t known this, but he knew every single flaw on the ground, every single shop, hologram, and edge and side street. Kogami had spent some years of his childhood in Chiba, and had walked through these streets together with Aki and Sho every day, but he could have never imagined that he knew everything so well. For years he hadn´t even thought about Chiba, and now he saw ghostly memories of himself and his two friends around every corner._

_It was amazing._

_Ginoza walked next to him, a bit annoyed of the amount of stories, Kogami thought he needed to tell him. Stories about every person, every tree, every stone on the ground. But then Ginoza had decided for himself that he wanted to accompany him._

_Kogami would have loved to walk together with Sho through these streets too, but he hadn´t been able to contact his old friend in the short time. On the one hand, he actually had no clue how he should contact Sho, on the other hand, Akiho had visited him together with her brother on Monday. Her brother, this incredibly forgetful person, had been all embarrassed during the visit. Probably he still couldn´t believe that his forgetfulness had actually led into him forgetting his own sister at an unknown park. Kogami couldn´t resent it, he hadn´t done this on purpose after all._

_Kogami had been surprised when Akiho had come to his and Ginoza´s school. The little girl had really asked Masaoka Tomomi ‒ Ginoza´s father, and Enforcer at the MWPSB´s Division Three, who had also helped her contacting her brother and getting back home after they had dropped her at the MWPSB Tower ‒ about their school and he really had answered her. So Akiho had been able to find Kogami ‒ just to ask him if he had already met his little friend Aki. He had been a bit ashamed, when he had to tell her that he hadn´t done it already. He even had to promise her that he would visit Aki next weekend and, of course, tell her about everything afterwards._

_And now the time had come for the surprise visit._

_Kogami got more and more nervous with every step, which brought him closer towards Aki´s home. Kogami hadn´t been so nervous in his life before and, of course, even if he knew that there was no reason why he should be nervous anyway, he just couldn´t help it. He hadn´t seen her for five years now! What should he even say? "Hey, can you remember me? I´m the one you played with when you were still a toddler, and who promised you to stay in touch with you, but completely forgot that you even existed until a few weeks ago"?_

_Probably, Aki had even begun hating him and Sho deeply for their betrayal, and didn´t want to see any of them anyway. But then, she had always been such a nice girl that the probability for this scenery was quite low. And of course, there was still the probability that she had moved with her family to another house or city. Everything was possible. She could hate him or not. She could be remembering him or not. She could live somewhere else now or not._

_And when Kogami and Ginoza walked around the last corner and started to walk straight towards Aki´s house, adrenaline filled Kogami´s veins for some point and he could only hear his blood trembling in his ears, and he was so excited like a little child and so nervous, even if there was no real reason to be nervous..._

_... until they finally arrived._

_And they stopped._

_And with the stopping of their walk, the whole world around Kogami seemed to have stopped too._

_The adrenaline faded away. He wasn´t feeling nervous anymore. Coldness rushed over his spine into every little corner of his body. Everything he saw and thought seemed to shatter into millions of pieces. Suddenly, he felt numb inside his own body._

_Little Aki´s home was burned down._

* * *

While they were driving through the city, Kagari leaned forward from his back seat to be able to speak to Natsumi and Kogami better.

"Whoa! Things are getting terrible on the net, too," he told them, using his special hologram device. "From false rumours to true information... A lot is flying back and forth."

"When the media coverage should be restrained... !" Natsumi muttered towards Kagari while driving. Actually, she didn´t want to think about this whole situation. She didn´t want to believe it that he... that he could do _such_ a thing. The _whole city_ was dying. She didn´t want him to have anything to do with this. But then, she also knew fairly well that she just couldn´t ignore the facts. Natsumi hoped that her hand didn´t shake while she drove.

_Shogo... what are you _doing_?_

"False rumours stand out more," Kagari informed them. "What is this?! 'The MWPSB kills all the residents'?!"

Kogami didn´t seem to pay attention to Kagari´s tries to form a conversation and, actually, Natsumi didn´t want to speak to him too. She just kept paying attention to the ruined buildings and burning cars and... corpses covering the ground. It was already night, and the moonlight made everything eerier than it already was.

They arrived at a street where plenty of helmet-wearers walked around, and they stopped.

"We have to stop them!" she said.

"Why don´t you run over and kill some of them by driving straight into them?" Kagari suggested and Natsumi turned towards him, glaring at him. No matter if he was her friend, sometimes you just couldn´t avoid glaring at his "brilliant" ideas.

"No way!"

"I thought it was a good idea."

"How was that a good idea?!"

Natsumi took the microphone connected to the loudspeakers of the car, and spoke through it to the helmet-wearers.

"This is the MWPSB! Stop this violence immediately and lay on your stomach with your hands behind your head!"

They didn´t follow her commands, they just started walking towards them, their baseballs bats ready.

"We have no choice but to resort to force," Kogami said and got out of the car. He took one of the Electromagnetic Pulse Grenades, and threw them at the nearing mass. Shock waves filled their bodies as it landed on the ground, making their bodies limp and fall to the ground. Those, who weren´t hit by the shock waves, stopped walking.

Kogami put out his Dominator.

"Give them a warning again!" he shouted at Natsumi, and she did as he had said.

"This is the MWPSB! If you don´t stop this violence, we´ll use the Dominators! Depending on your Crime Coefficient, you could lose your life! I repeat! Lay on your stomach with your hands behind your head!"

And this time, they did what she told them, dropping their weapons and laying on their stomachs. Kagari and Natsumi got out of the car too, and while the Enforcers shackled them, Natsumi looked over the whole scene before her eyes. Even though, the helmet-wearers had caused quite a great destruction in this area, she could still recognise it. Yuki lived in this area.

_Yuki_. Suddenly ice crystals ran in her veins, and a horrible, horrible feeling made itself a home in her body. Natsumi looked around and automatically her eyes ran over the corpses on the ground.

_Please, please don´t let her be one of them._

She walked away from Kagari and Kogami, and even if she was sure that they were staring after her, she wouldn´t go back. With a flowing movement, Natsumi got her mobile phone out of her police jacket. Of course, she was on duty right now, but she just couldn´t stop the urge on checking on Yuki. She dialled Yuki´s number and held the phone on her ear. It rang and...

Natsumi froze.

_This isn´t possible._

She looked around the area and her heart beat in her chest immensely fast. Dried blood painted the ground in an awful red, and she felt sick by just looking at it.

_Please, please, she can´t be here. I cannot find her here._

_But what if her corpse lays not here but somewhere else?_, a little voice said in her head, and Natsumi pushed it away from her. She just didn´t want to think about this possibility for a second or less.

With her phone still pressed against her ear, she ran through the streets, following the faint ringing tone which grew louder and louder every time she got closer and closer to the source.

_Please, please, just pick up, Yuki. You have to pick up. Please, or just have dropped it..._

Natsumi looked around and then, finally, she stood right in front of the apartment building where Yuki lived ‒ the ringing tone being the loudest now. It looked spooky and abandoned like a building in some horror movie, except this was the bitter reality.

_She isn´t here. She isn´t here_, she thought while her heart still ran a marathon in her chest, and she was about to turn around and return to Kogami and Kagari. _She isn´t here. She isn´t he‒_

In the moment she wanted to turn around and walk back, Natsumi´s gaze fell upon the few stairs which led towards the building´s entrance door, and the ice crystals in her veins merged to completely freeze her whole body.

In complete horror, she stared at the corpse of her best friend. A big injury gaped in her back. Yuki´s body was strangely twisted. Her face was directly turned towards the place where Natsumi was standing, Yuki´s lifeless eyes looked directly at her. Her face, so beautiful, was splattered in blood ‒ her whole body was soaked in blood. In her hands she held her key. Even after her death, Yuki clutched onto the her last hope, her entry ticket to safety.

A bit of the ice in her legs cracked, and Natsumi fell down to her knees, not being able to look away from this gruesome scenery. Her phone fell to the ground and the ringing kept on singing through the air. She looked directly into the brown eyes of her friend ‒ the eyes who had been so cheerful so often, the eyes who were now blank and empty ‒, and Yuki looked directly into Natsumi´s eyes. It was like some terrible magic spell bonded them together forever. She just couldn´t take away her gaze.

_She was so, so, _so_ close._

Tears burned in Natsumi´s eyes.

_How could you do this, Shogo? How can you see a whole city killing itself? HOW?_

Automatically, her hand grabbed the little wooden pendant. She closed her eyes. She didn´t want to cry. She didn´t want to cry, she had shed enough tears in the last days. She couldn´t cry right now. Right now, she had to find Makishima. Right now, she needed to stop this chaos.

Natsumi didn´t know where she had got the strength from to stand up, but when she opened her eyes again, her tears weren´t only fought back, but she was also standing again. She ripped herself away from the scene of the crime, picked up her phone, turned it off, put it away and walked steadily towards her colleagues, her eyes showing nothing but determination.

_This will soon be over, Yuki. I promise you._

* * *

_The NONA Tower._

After Natsumi had come back to Kogami and Kagari, they had figured out that Makishima´s actual goal was to infiltrate the NONA Tower, even if they still didn´t know why. They had got their approval from Ginoza, and now they were hurrying towards the tower.

_Helmets which copy the Psycho-Pass of the person with the lowest one, and the clearest Hue, and fool Dominators_, Natsumi thought while looking out of the car´s windows, the city rushing in front of her eyes.

_You´ve always wanted to give the people their freedom back, Shogo, and for me this thought, this idea has always been noble. But this isn´t the way to accomplish this dream. You can´t give people their freedom back when those people don´t exist._

She lightly touched her right wrist. _Even though you´ve managed to fulfill another idea of yours with it._

* * *

"_Kogami."_

_His name sounded distorted._

"_Kogami."_

_His name didn´t sound like his name._

"_Kogami."_

_Was really somebody speaking to him, or had he gone insane?_

"Kogami_."_

_Little Aki had never called him like this. She had had a different name for him..._

"_KOGAMI."_

_Somebody was shaking him by the shoulders. And suddenly pain exploded on his cheek when Ginoza slapped him. Kogami stumbled back, and finally he was able to recognise his surroundings properly again. He blinked a few times before he spoke._

"_Thanks," he said dryly, looking into his friend´s pale face. He looked worried._

"_I have never seen you so absent before."_

_Kogami looked at the remains of Aki´s home. He had spent so many happy days at this place ‒ for example the first Christmas he had celebrated with Aki and Sho. His mother and he had gone to this place to celebrate together with their friends. He remembered meeting Aki´s grandmother, and Aki´s lovely smile which seemed even brighter on this special day, and Sho´s happy face when he opened his very first Christmas present. The laughter they had shared haunted Kogami´s ears, and the memory hit him with a bullet right into his chest._

"_The house... it´s gone," Kogami said and his own voice sounded strange in his ears. And then, suddenly, a new and frightening thought filled his head, and the numbness came back, worse than before._

Please. Let the fire have been broken out when they weren´t at home_, he thought as he started running. Ginoza called his name ‒ he didn´t mind. He needed a piece of information, probably the most important one in his entire life._

_He ran towards a certain house, the house of one of Aki´s neighbours who had always been friendly to them as children, and was heavily relieved when he saw that Taguchi Chiyoko still lived in the old-fashioned house of hers. Kogami walked around the house to the fence which framed her beloved garden, where she usually spent her time. He was lucky as it didn´t seem to have changed in the course of all the years._

_The friendly woman ‒ who had lost her beloved husband at the age of twenty-four and never thought about remarrying ‒ was in her early fifties now. Her hair was still dark brown with only a few grey streaks, and her dark eyes still filled with youth and sadness._

_Kogami stood at the fence and grabbed it tightly, waiting for her to notice him. When she did, she looked up and frowned at his face. And then suddenly, Taguchi Chiyoko looked like she wanted to cry._

"_Shinya-kun?"_

_As children, they had spent hours and hours in her garden, drinking tea and talking with her, after Sho had kicked a football over the fence and Aki had told everyone she would get it._

_Kogami nodded and even allowed himself to smile sadly._

"_Hello, Taguchi-san."_

_Taguchi walked towards the fence and put a hand on the cheek Ginoza had slapped._

"_You´ve grown so much, Shinya-kun."_

_Her face looked like she was in pain._

_Kogami took a deep breath. "I would love to talk to you more... but... but I didn´t come here to visit you... "_

_She dropped her arm and her eyes even looked sadder than usual. "I see."_

"_What" ‒ he wished that he didn´t had to ask this question, he wished that he had imagined everything, that, in fact, everything was okay ‒ "What happened to Aki´s house?"_

_Taguchi looked down. "It burned down," she said silently, her voice cracking like Kogami´s heart in his chest._

"_And... and what about Aki? Her family?"_

_Had there ever been any fluid in his throat?_

_She looked up and tears flowed down her cheeks. "I´m sorry... I´m so, so sorry, Shinya-kun... Aki-chan... Aki-chan died in the flames. Together with her family."_

_His worst nightmare had come true. His greatest fear. The world blackened._

_And it felt like his heart had been ripped off directly from his chest._

* * *

_The enemy is currently split in two groups. Four upstairs, four downstairs._

They had reached the NONA Tower and now, there wasn´t any doubt anymore that this place was truly Makishima´s real target. Kagari, Kogami and herself, Natsumi, had informed Ginoza about everything, and because Natsumi had allowed Karanomori to hack into the tower´s system, they could also speak to her and ask her about everything concerning the tower´s structure and the location of Makishima and his henchmen.

On the ground floor they had split into two groups: Kogami and Natsumi had headed towards the upper floor, while Kagari had moved towards the basement area.

_Where´s Makishima? ‒ He´s upstairs. He just got off the lift at the top floor. ‒ The top floor? Not the government office floor? ‒ Right. They went straight to the antenna block. ‒ I wonder if they´re trying to hijack the radio signal or something. ‒ Their target isn´t the Ministry of Welfare?_

Apparently, Makishima was upstairs by the antenna block of the tower for some point. He hadn´t gone to the government office floor, so his target couldn´t be the Ministry of Welfare itself, but something else located in this tower. But what? They didn´t know yet, but they hopefully would soon.

Natsumi wasn´t feeling well, leaving Kagari all on his own, but she knew that she was probably the only person, who could stop Makishima without risking anyone´s life. Apart of Kagari, she was also worried about someone else.

_What kind of men headed downstairs? ‒ Well... They went missing after they went down to basement level 4._

Four people had gone upstairs ‒ Makishima and three henchmen who would protect him, even though he was very capable of fighting himself. However, he had never liked to dirty his own hands.

It wouldn´t make any sense if Makishima had sent _four_ henchmen downstairs. Four chessmen, four absolutely disposable persons. Kogami and Kagari didn´t know, but Natsumi did that Makishima would have most likely sent his right-hand man downstairs with three own henchmen.

_Well... They went missing after they went down to basement level 4._

Also, Natsumi wasn´t only scared about Kagari being all alone down there, having to face off with three henchmen all on his own soon, but about the fact what could await him besides the henchmen and Choe Gu-sung. After all, Karanomori had told them that the people, who had walked downstairs, had gone _missing_ at some point. She hadn´t been able to detect them anymore, and the only real "security system" this place had left were Kogami, Kagari and Natsumi, so they couldn´t have been killed or arrested. And they couldn´t have possibly vanished into thin air.

There wasn´t any other explanation why they had gone missing: there was something in the basement area nobody knew about.

And the lack of knowledge about this _"something"_ was quite horrifying.

Natsumi had let Kogami go ahead as they had to find a special lift, which would bring them upstairs to Makishima. She would catch up with him in the foreseeable future, but now she didn´t want him around. That Karanomori could be listening every single one of her words would be worse enough.

Natsumi stopped walking and turned on her hologram device. Now she could only hope that Kagari hadn´t already entered this "unknown place" at the basement. But to her absolute luck, she could call him quite easily. She would have smiled if the situation hadn´t been so complicated.

_Kogami-san, my colleague, investigation partner and saviour, is about to kill Shogo, my brother in mind, while one of my best friends walks right into some unknown danger, and will most likely collide with another old friend of mine. I´ve had better days._

"Natsumi-chan?" she heard Kagari´s voice through the device. From the lack of walking noises, she could guess that he had stopped moving.

"Is anything wrong? Natsumi-chan? Were you attacked? Do you need help? Did anything go wrong?"

She shook her head, even though there was no way he could see her. "No. Kogami-san and I are fine. We´re fine."

"Why are you calling me, then? Do you want me to come back? Do you want me to join you? Are you having any problems you guys can´t solve without me?"

Natsumi closed her eyes. "Kagari-kun, you have to listen to me, okay? What I will now say is _essential_ for everything."

Kagari on the other end had gone silent due to the sudden seriousness in Natsumi´s voice.

"What is it, Natsu?"

"What I will now tell you is absolutely important, okay? I´m afraid, but you have to follow my orders no matter what. First of all, whatever happens this conversation stays a secret between the two of us, okay?"

A pause. "I promise you, that I won´t tell anyone anything. And now tell me ‒ what is so urgent that you have to tell me it in this very moment?"

She opened her eyes and took a deep breath. "Apart from the henchmen, you will meet another person in the area you´re about to investigate. And as you know, the four people who went downstairs simply _vanished_. I don´t know exactly what it means, but I´m certain that nothing good will await you there. You have to be totally careful, okay? You have to think about every step you make.

"But I don´t only want to tell you, that you have to be almost absurdly careful when you enter this offline area. I want to tell you that whatever happens, you have to immediately head back to the entrance area, after you have met the other person there, okay? You have to take him with you, and head back _as fast as you can_. You can´t stay any longer after you´ve met him, have you understood me? The second after you collide with him, you have to _run_. There´s a chance that you will be killed, if you stay there any longer. We don´t know anything about this place, or why they had vanished all of sudden. We only know that something is terribly fishy about the NONA Tower. I don´t want the both of you to be killed, only because you found something fascinating and interesting in the basement. I want the two of you to be safe and alive."

Another pause. "Why should I rescue someone who´s apparently on the enemy´s side?" Kagari asked exactly the question, Natsumi was afraid he would.

She bit her lips. "I will explain everything to you, when this whole mess is over. Now, it isn´t the right place and time to discuss this. I promise, I will answer every single one of your questions later, okay?"

He was pausing again. She had never experienced a Kagari Shusei, who didn´t say things right away. "I see. But, Natsu... how should I convince him to come with me? We´re enemies after all."

Natsumi took another deep breath. "Just tell him that this is an order of Inspector Tsunemori Akane."

"Inspector Tsu... What are you... " Pausing. "Tsunemori Akane, huh?" Kagari seemed to have understood. Sometimes it was quite surprising, how intelligent he actually was. She nearly smiled again.

"One more thing before we have to return to our actual tasks." She swallowed. "I don´t know how today´s events will turn out, but I want you to know that I am, and always will be, grateful that you are my friend, Kagari Shusei. Even if I probably aren´t able tell you everything, I hope that you understand that I would do it. That I would tell you everything."

Kagari paused again, and when he spoke, could Natsumi almost hear the smile in his words.

"I know, Natsu. I know. And you have to know, whatever happens today, whatever name you use, Natsumi or Akane, it will never change the fact that we´re friends."

She hadn´t intend to cry, and still tears were glittering in her eyes. "Thank you, Shu," she said, then turned off her hologram device and hurried to catch up with Kogami.

* * *

_It was October 28, 2104, exactly two years after Kogami Shinya had gone with Ginoza Nobuchika to Chiba, and two years and twenty-four days after Aki´s death, when the sun was hanging high over the planet and shone quite bright for an autumn day._

_And it was also the day of Kogami Shinya´s very first mission as an Inspector of the MWPSB´s Division Three._

_The sun painted the brown leaves of the autumn in warm gold tones, when Kogami arrived at the cemetery where Aki´s memorial grave was located. Her body had burned down in the flames, so there hadn´t been much left to bury, so Kogami himself and Aki´s maternal family had induced, that the little girl, her parents and her grandmother would get memorial graves instead. It had been the first active thing he had done, after he had found out about his childhood friend´s tragic fate. For some weeks, Kogami had done nothing more than studying and taking exams. He had barely talked to Ginoza or to anyone, until his mother couldn´t stand it anymore to see her son in such a state, that she had successfully talked him out of his depressive phase._

_Kogami walked into the cemetery and right towards Aki´s grave. In today´s world, there weren´t any gravestones or wide fields which were full of them, but large buildings where coffins were pushed into a wall like drawers. Arriving, Kogami put his hand on the fine, golden plate which was holding Aki´s name._

"_Hello," he found himself whispering. His word flying through he whole building. Today, he was the only person visiting anyone._

"_I´m sorry, that I´m not visiting you regularly. I wish I could, but I can´t. I´m sorry." He stopped. "I was assigned to the MWPSB as an Inspector, Division Three," he started telling her memorial grave. The grave which didn´t hold her bones until they became dust, because there weren´t any left._

"_I... I remember you getting all excited every time, Sho told you stories about Sherlock Holmes or other detectives. Of all the stories he read to you or I read to you, you liked the detective stories the most. You were so little, too young in the eyes of adults to listen to such stories, but you did anyway, and you enjoyed every single one of them. And I remember you running towards your mother, and joyfully announcing her that you would be a detective, when you´re grown up after having listened to '_Halloween Party' _by Agatha Christie."_

_He paused._

"_I can´t do anything else, but imagine how proud and excited you would have been, when I had told you that I was assigned to the Public Safety Bureau´s Criminal Investigation Department. That I got the job you´ve always dreamed of. The job you would never get. I can only imagine the happiness in your imagined twelve-year-old face, and the words you would say to me with your more matured voice."_

_The plate felt cold when he ran his fingers over the engraving. _2092-2102_._

"_I really wish that someday, we would have been able to work together, Aki."_

* * *

He had left Natsumi by the staircase after she had been injured, and Kogami himself had checkmated one of Makishima´s henchmen. He had never intended to leave her alone, but at least she wouldn´t have to see him dying.

Makishima was stronger than Kogami had imagined. Despite his slender figure, his slim body, Makishima Shogo was truly a skilled fighter. He had even accomplished to crack Kogami´s head. Blood was running into his eyes. He couldn´t even open one anymore. His shirt was soaked in blood, and Kogami had no clue if he would pass away before Makishima could slit open his throat with the razor, which he had just pulled out of his trouser´s pocket.

Kogami turned his face towards the door. Natsumi was out there by the staircase and Kagari in the basement. Ginoza, Masaoka and Kunizuka could be anywhere in Tokyo, and Karanomori was still at the MWPSB Tower. If he died right now, Kogami would die alone.

Okay, almost alone. His murderer would probably grin over his corpse.

And then he saw a movement by the door and Natsumi stepped through it. She limped, but now it had got even worse than before as she had been injured earlier. Her eyes were glowing in some way, Kogami couldn´t classify, and in her right hand she held the helmet he had given her earlier. She pressed her teeth together, possibly to fight back the pain as she came closer.

_She´s about to hit him with the helmet_, Kogami thought. _I know it. She will do it._

But when Natsumi arrived a few metres behind Makishima, she suddenly stopped. And then, all of sudden, she let the helmet fall down the ground. Kogami widened his eyes and Makishima turned around, stepping back a bit, so the three of them were forming some kind of triangle, and were able to look in each others faces from their respective positions. Because of that, Kogami could see the tiredness in Natsumi´s eyes and how Makishima´s face had suddenly softened.

_Why didn´t you kill him? Why did you let the helmet fall down?_, Kogami thought.

"_I wanted to atone my crimes." ‒ "I was just in a position to stop him from committing any crimes."_

_Haven´t you told me some months ago, that you wanted to stop Makishima and bring him to justice? Didn´t you say that you wanted to atone your crimes? Because you couldn´t stop Makishima years ago?_

_So why didn´t you hit him with the helmet? Why did you let it fall?_

"Ins... Inspector... ," Kogami managed to say, and Makishima turned towards him, a wicked grin drawn all over his face.

"Did you _really_ think that Dearie girlie would help you?"

_Dearie girlie?_ Something inside Kogami tightened, and he flinched pathetically.

Makishima laughed. "Really? I knew you were pathetic, Enforcer Kogami Shinya, but to such a degree? Highly disappointing."

He stepped back to his original position and smiled at Natsumi who was trying not to look into Kogami´s eyes.

"I wished our reunion would have looked more elegant, more... _comfortable_. But it´s still wonderful to see you again ‒ dear sister."

* * *

**The quote is from Henry Adams' _The Education of Henry Adams_.**

**I really hope that you guys liked this chapter. It was really hard to write...**

**Until next time!**

**Momo**

_**\- currently celebrating a bit, even though she should actually be writing and stuff**_


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